UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT   LOS  ANGELES 


A    REPLY   TO 


nir  (f0!tii!ioit-^ff  d  |j«ratiflit. 


PUBLISHED    BY    ORDER   OF 

The  North-Eastern  Ohio  Teachers'  Association. 


' 


PAST  AND  PRESENT 


Our  Common  School  Education. 


REPLY    TO    PRESIDENT    B.    A.    HINSDALE, 
WITH 

A  Brief  Sketch  of  the  History 

OF 

ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION  IN  AMERICA. 


.A.:tT:E>:R.  T,  ^ic^oorrr, 

SUPERINTENDENT  OF  SCHOOLS,  CLEVELAND. 




'  /PUBLISHED    BY    ORDER  OF   THE  NORTH-EASTERN 
TEACHERS'   ASSOCIATION 


CLEVELAND,  O: 

LEADER   PRINTING  COMPANY,    146   SUPERIOR  STREET.  f 

1877. 


INTRODUCTION. 


IT  having  been  understood  that  President  HINSDALE  had  some  severe 
strictures  to  make  concerning  the  graded  common  schools  of  the  day,  he  was 
invited  to  read  a  paper  on  the  subject  at  the  meeting  of  this  Association  which 
was  held  December  9th,  1876.  The  address  was  listened  to  with  great 
interest;  and  though  there  were  few,  if  any,  who  adopted  his  views,  a  copy  of 
the  paper  was  solicited  for  publication.  It  was  generally  felt  that  the  Presi- 
dent had  made  the  strongest  possible  presentation  of  the  floating  criticisms  of 
the  day;  and  the  way  in  which  it  has  been  received  by  the  public,  proves 
that  it  is  acceptable  to  those  who  hold  views  in  anywise  like  his  own.  Cer- 
tain it  is,  that  his  commentators  have  added  little  or  nothing  to  his  arguments 
or  repertoire  of  facts  to  sustain  the  position  which  he  has  taken. 

The  delay  of  this  reply  has  been  attributed  by  some  to  that  timidity  which 
is  naturally  felt  in  attacking  a  strong  antagonist;  but  it  is  believed  that  this 
paper  will  show  that  the  natural  advantage  of  our  position  is  so  great  that  it 
really  requires  no  moral  courage  or  forensic  skill  to  defend  it  against  any 
arguments  that  have  been  or  may  be  brought  against  it.  The  truth  is,  that  I 
hesitated  greatly  to  accept  the  duty  imposed  on  me  by  the  Executive  Committee, 
because  it  seemed  impossible  for  me  to  get  the  time  necessary  to  make  myself 
certain  as  to  the  facts  involved  in  the  discussion,  and  to  prepare  such  a  paper 
as  might  be  acceptable  to  my  highly  respected  associates.  The  result  has 
proved  that  my  apprehensions  were  correct.  I  have  been  unable  to  prepare 
my  reply  for  the  press  till  now — more  than^six  months  since  its  delivery. 

Just  here,  and  once  for  all,  let  me  say  that  I  shall  aim  to  speak  as  an  advo- 

^    cate  for  the  best  education  of  the  people,  and  not  as  a  partisan  of  the  schools. 

^    I  do  not  claim  that  the  graded  schools  are  perfect,  or  that  they  are  as  good  as 

^   they  can  be  made.     It  would  be  wonderful  if  mistakes  were  not  made  here  as 

v  elsewhere  in  the  affairs  of  men.     I  only  claim  that  they  are  better  than  they 

\4   have  been  at  any  previous  period  of  their  history,  and  what  is   still  more 

.    encouraging,  that  they  are  rapidly  improving.     I  might  justly  claim  also  that  the 

<vV  improvement  of  the  common  schools  and  the  establishment  of  the  High  and 

§  Normal  Schools  have  been  mighty  incentives  and  aids  to  the  improvement  of 

rivate  schools,  academies  and  even  colleges,  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  raise 

that  question  here, 

I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  to  deny  that  there  have  been  good  schools 
in  the  past,  for  wherever  there  have  been  good  school-masters  there  have 
been  good  schools.  From  the  first  there  have  been  men  in  New  England  and 
in  every  State  of  the  Union  who  have  been  good  educators.  They  taught 


4095J28 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

well  whatever  they  attempted  to  teach;  but  the  evidence  which  I  shall  submit 
will  show  that  they  arose  above  the  common  level  by  the  force  of  superior 
manhood,  and  not  by  the  aid  of  their  surroundings.  It  would  seem  hardly 
necessary  to  caution  the  reader  against  too  wide  a  deduction  from  his  own 
limited  experience.  Because  one's  neighbor  is  an  intemperate  man,  it  is 
hardly  safe  to  say  that  intemperance  is  the  habit  of  the  community;  so,  if 
one's  schoolmaster  chanced  to  be  a  good  one,  it  is  not  certain  that  in  the  time 
of  his  youth  the  education  of  the  whole  State  was  in  good  hands,  or  even  that 
good  teachers  were  common. 

One  more  paragraph  and  we  are  done  with  prefatory  remarks.  It  does  not 
seem  best  to  confine  myself  to  a  mere  answer  to  Mr.  HINSDALE.  The  evi- 
dence of  a  few  competent  witnesses  and  a  thorough  refutation  of  his  West 
Point  argument  would  be  sufficient  to  meet  every  material  point  in  his  address. 
But  I  shall  avail  myself  of  the  opportunity  to  direct  public  attention  to  such 
facts  in  the  history  of  the  common  schools  as  may  be  of  service  in  their 
present  and  future  management.  The  question,  of  overcrowding  the  course  of 
study  being  raised,  it  will  be  quite  appropriate  to  show  that  that  overcrowding 
comes  from  the  undue  expansion  of  those  branches  which  are  honored  with 
the  name  of  common  school  studies,  not  from  the  introduction  of  what  are 
styled  the  higher  branches  of  education.  Genera^  SHERMAN'S  and  Professor 
CHURCH'S  views  on  this  subject,  as  quoted  by  President  HINSDALE,  are 
superficial  in  the  extreme. 


OUR  COMMON  SCHOOL  EDUCATION. 


THAT  the  reader  may  be  able  to  keep  in  mind  the  course  of 
Mr.  HINSDALE'S  argument,  I  shall,  as  I  go  along,  present  out- 
lines of  his  discourse,  under  what  seem  to  me  appropriate  heads. 
I  hope  that  they  may  be  accepted  as  fair — I  certainly  design 
that  they  shall  be.  I  shall  aim  to  preserve  as  much  as  possible 
the  force  and  spirit  of  the  original,  to  which  the  reader  is 
referred,  if  any  point  seems  to  be  unfairly  stated. 

1.  "In  no  country  has  the  common  school  taken  deeper  root  than  in  our 
own."     "Though  we  may  not  be  equal  to  others  in  our  liberal,  technical  and 
art  culture,  we  yield  to  none  in  our  devotion  to  popular  elementary  instruc- 
tion." 

2.  "Its  influence" — that  is,  of  the  common  school  system — "  in  the  promo- 
tion of  intelligence  and  prosperity  in  the  Northern  and  Eastern  States  has 
been  rated  so  high,  that  every  new  State  adopts  it  without  question." — (Quoted 
by  Mr.  HiNSDALE  from  Dr.  OILMAN.) 

3.  The  common  school   system   first   appeared   in   Massachusetts.      The 
statute  by  which  it  was  established  is  the  germ  of  the  American  school  system. 
Dr.  OILMAN  is  quoted  as  thus  describing  its  essential  features:  "Local  respon- 
sibility, State  oversight,  moderate  charges  or  gratuitous  instruction;  provision 
for  all,  and  not  for  the  poor  alone;  and  a  recognition  of  three  harmonious 
grades:  the  primary  school,  the  grammar  school  and  the  university." 

4.  The  rapidity  of  growth  is  represented  as  remarkable.      "The  Massachu- 
setts tree  first  overspread  New  England,  where  it  became   well-rooted  more 
than  a  century  ago."     "When  emigration  to  the  West  set  in,  the  tide  bore 
the  school  system  along."      "Cuttings   from   the    New  England   tree   were 
thickly  planted  in  the  region  of  the  Great  Lakes,  and  in  the  valley  of  the  Missis- 
sippi as  far  south  as  the  mouths  of  the  Ohio  and  Missouri;  they  have   been 
carried  over  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  planted  on  the  Pacific  slope."     "  'Our 
public  schools  must  be  cheap  enough  for  the  poorest,  and  good  enough  for  the 
best,'  has  become  the  distinct  aim  and  purpose  of  three-fourths  of  the  States 
and  of  the  people  of  our  Union." 


6  OUR    COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

The  present  situation  is  thus  stated : 

"  In  our  Centennial  year  our  common  schools  constitute  a  highly  complex 
and  differentiated,  a  vast  and  powerful  system. "  "In  the  towns  and  cities  the 
system  has  taken  on  a  form  especially  complex  and  costly."  "The  statistics 
of  the  system  are  overwhelming."  "What  is  more,  the  expenditures  are 
increasing  with  surprising  rapidity."  Quoting  Mr.  FRANCIS  ADAMS,  Secre- 
tary of  the  National  Education  League  for  England,  it  is  said:  "  During  the 
twenty  years  expiring  in  1870  the  population  had  increased  about  seventy  per 
cent.,  and  the  aggregate  amount  expended  for  education  had  increa 
six  times  the  sum  raised  in  1850."  "  Well  may  the  evolution  of  such  a  system 
have  required  more  than  two  hundred  years." 

In  the  outset  I  have  to  object  to  the  history  of  the  common 
school  as  presented  by  President  HINSDALE.  From  the  above 
sketch,  with  which  he  opens  his  paper,  one  would  be  led  to  be- 
lieve that  the  development  of  the  system  had  been  a  magnificent 
and  unobstructed  progress  from  the  time  of  the  first  settlement 
of  New  England  down  to  the  present  day. 

Unfortunately  for  Mr.  HINSDALE'S  argument,  and  still  more 
unfortunately  for  our  beloved  country,  his  sketch  is  not  his- 
tory; it  is  only — rhetoric.  So  late  as  fifty  years  ago  the 
schools  of  Massachusetts  were  little  better  than  schools  for 
paupers.  Up  to  within  thirty-five  or  forty  years,  "cuttings  from 
the  Massachusetts  tree"  were  planted,  not  as  schools  for  the 
whole  people,  "cheap  enough  for  the  poorest  and  good  enough 
for  the  best,"  but  as  schools  for  the  poor.  If  we  may  judge 
from  the  way  in  which  the  early  school  laws  were  received  in 
Ohio  and  many  other  Western  States,  the  common  school,  in- 
stead of  being  welcomed  and  kindly  cherished  in  its  new  home- 
in  the  West,  was  treated  as  a  tramp  who  begs  his  food  from  door 
to  door. 

Advances  in  school  legislation  have  been  so  rapid  within  the 
last  forty  years,  that,  as  Mr.  BARNARD  says : 

"We  are  already  accustomed  to  speak  of  the  New  England  system  of 
public  instruction  as  being  parts  of  a  well-ordered  plan  of  education  <. stall 
lished  long  since  and  tested  by  time.  *  *  *  It  is  impossible  for  the  great  mass 
of  the  rising  generation  to  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  our  present  arrangements 
for  education,  such  as  they  are  in  New  England,  are  the  creation  of  active 
men  still  on  the  stage;  and  that  those  men  themselves,  in  their  early  training, 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  7 

had  scarcely  any  other  advantage  than  the  unwilling  school-boy  of  Shakes, 
peare's  Seven  Ages. "  * 

This  is  an  important  point  in  the  discussion  of  the  prevailing 
education  of  the  day.  Its  bearing  is  so  obvious  that  I  take  some 
space  to  review  the  history  of  the  schools  in  the  New  England 
Colonies,  and  to  set  forth  as  clearly  as  possible  their  condition  as 
affected  by  legislation  from  the  time  of  the  Revolution  to  within 
less  than  a  generation  ago. 

EARLY    HISTORY    OF    EDUCATION    IN    NEW    ENGLAND. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  early  history  of  education  in  New 
England,  as  honorable  as  it  may  be,  was  not  rendered  especially 
illustrious  by  the  establishment  and  liberal  support  of  elementary 
schools.  It  was  to  the  education  of  the  University  that  the 
General  Court  of  .Massachusetts  gave  its  first  attention.  To  Har- 
vard College,  founded  only  sixteen  years  after  the  first  settlement 
of  the  colony,  fell  the  mites  of  the  poor,  the  benefactions  of  the 
rich,  and  the  appropriations  of  the  State.  Nor  is  this  strange. 
At  home  they  had  not  been  accustomed  to  the  thought  of  an 
education  of  the  whole  people.  The  great  universities  and  the 
endowed  grammar  schools  »f  England  had  been  created  for  the 
education  of  the  clergy  and  the  higher  classes.  It  was  natural 
that  the  colonists  should  give  their  attention  to  the  building  up  of 
such  kind  of  schools  as  they  had  been  accustomed  to,  that  they 
should  aim  to  perpetuate  that  learning  with  which  their  leaders 
were  familiar.  It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  their  notions  of 
popular  education  should  run  much  higher  than  that  of  the  people 
from  whom  they  had  just  separated  themselves,  among  whom  the 
opinion  prevailed  that  the  education  of  the  masses,  beyond  a 
limited  ability  to  read  and  write,  was  not  necessary  for  their 
happiness,  nor  indeed  for  the  best  interests  of  the  State. 

It  was  therefore  several  years  after  the  General  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts had  donated  £400  for  the  building  of  a  "college  or 
school,"  that  the  "classic  statute"  was  passed,  whereby  it  was 
ordered  that  "  in  every  town  of  fifty  householders "  one  should  be 
appointed  "to  teach  all  such  children  as  shall  resort  to  him  to 


*  Educational  Services  of  Edward  Everett,  American  Journal  of  Education,  Vol.  VII. 
page  325. 


OUR   COMMON    SCHOOL   EDUCATION. 

write  and  read,"  and  that  "where  any  town  shall  increase  to  the 
number  of  one  hundred  families  or  householders,  they  shall  set 
up  a  grammar  school,*  the  master  thereof  being  able  to  instruct 
youth  as  far  as  they  may  be  fitted  for  the  University,"  that  is,  in 
the  Latin  and  Greek  languages.! 

Let  it  be  observed,  that  well  defined  and  high  qualifications 
were  exacted  of  the  master  of  a  "Grammar  school,"  but  that  for 
the  lower  schools  it  was  only  required  that  "  one  within  the  town  " 
should  be  appointed  "to  teach  all  such  children  as  shall  resort  to 
him  to  write  and  to  read." 

We  have  not  time  to  trace  the  history  of  education  from  1647, 
the  date  of  the  "classic  statute"  which  President  GILMAN  calls 
the  "germ  of  the  common  school  system  of  New  England,"  down 
to  the  Revolution,  a  period  of  about  one  hundred  and  thirty  years. 
Though  there  were  some  distinguished  schoolmasters  in  those 
days,  we  can  nowhere  find  that  the  town  "grammar"  school 
was  a  very  strong  or  flourishing  institution.  So  far  as  we  can 
ascertain,  most  of  the  boys  who  entered  college,  even  from  an 
early  period,  were  prepared  by  private  tutors,  generally  ministers 
of  the  gospel. 

The  lower  schools,  during  this  period  of  a  hundred  years  or 
more,  are  almost  lost  sight  of.  It  is*  only  in  the  biographies  of 
men  who  lived  at  the  time,  that  we  catch  occasional  glimpses  of 
a  succession  of  summer  and  winter  schools ;  and  as  they  appear 
in  this  way,  we  find  little  to  commend  in  them.  Descriptions  of 
them,  as  they  existed  in  the  early  part  of  the  present  century,  are 
doubtless  as  true  of  those  of  any  preceding  period. 

At  times  the  common  education  of  the  people  was  at  a  very 
low  ebb.  Notwithstanding  the  stringency  of  the  laws  requiring 


*  A  grammar  school  was  then  understood  to  be  a  school  in  which  the  Latin  and  Greek 
languages  were  taught.  So  late  as  the  time  of  the  establishment  of  the  Phillips  Academy  at 
Andover,  (1777,)  we  learn  that  nothing  else  was  taught  in  these  schools.  They  were  designed 
solely  for  the  preparation  of  boys  for  college. 

t  There  can  be  no  question  that  in  this  very  early  day  these  languages  were  taught  better 
than  they  have  been  at  later  periods,  though  at  the  present  time  there  is  a  considerable 
revival  in  this  respect.  In  that  day  Latin  at  least  was  taught  as  a  living  language.  In 
Greek  the  requirements  were  much  less  than  they  now  are.  The  conditions  for  admission  to 
Harvard  College  required  by  President  DUNSTP.R,  for  the  year  1642,  were  as  follows: 

"Whoever  shall  be  able  to  read  Cicero  or  any  other  such  like  classical  author  at  sight, 
and  correctly,  and  without  assislance  to  speak  and  write  Latin  in  prose  and  verse,  and  to 
inflect  exactly  the  paradigms  of  Greek  nouns  and  verbs,  has  a  right  to  expect  to^be  admitted 
into  the  College;  and  no  one  may  claim  admission  without  these  qualifications." 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  9 

under  severe  penalty  an  education  so  limited,  the  public  records 
of  1690  and  many  years  thereafter  show  that  "  writing  was  by  no 
means  a  universal  accomplishment,  even  within  the  narrow  limits 
of  the  ability  to  write  one's  own  name."  * 

Shortly  after  the  Revolutionary  war  the  condition  of  affairs  was 
somewhat  better,  but  a  quarter  of  a  century  thereafter  it  had 
become  worse  than  at  any  previous  time. 

But  it  matters  very  little,  in  the  present  inquiry,  to  know  by 
what  measures  the  colonies  sought  from  time  to  time  to  recover 
the  spirit  and  fulfil  the  intent  of  their  early  laws.  It  is  only 
necessary  for  us  to  know  that  though  the  cause  of  popular  educa- 
tion may  have  moved  forward  at  times,  the  general  tendency  was 
downward.  We  shall  therefore  close  this  review  by  submitting 
the  testimony  of  three  men  as  to  the  general  condition  of  the 
the  schools  in  New  England  very  little  more  than  a  single  genera- 
tion ago. 

The  witnesses  are  men  of  culture,  and  "exceptional  opportu- 
nities for  observation."  Mr.  GEORGE  B.  EMERSON,  a  graduate  of 
Harvard  in  1817,  appointed  in  1821  the  first  master  of  the 
English  High  School  in  Boston,  in  1842  the  author  of  a  work 
entitled  "The  School  Master,"  which  was  distributed  gratuitously 
throughout  the  States  of  Massachusetts  and  New  York  by  tens  of 
thousands  of  copies,  an  active  teacher  down  to  1855,  and  to-day 
one  of  the  most  honored  men  of  Boston,  is  certainly  a  competent 
witness.  Mr.  BARNARD  needs  no  introduction.  His  name  is  a 
familiar  word  to  American  teachers,  and  so  with  Mr.  MANN  who 
is  said  to  have  infused  that  fresh  life  of  which  Mr.  PEABODY 
speaks  as  already  "  petrifying  and  petrified." 
*  Mr.  EMERSON,  in  a  "Lecture  on  Education,  Legislation  and 
History,"  delivered  before  the  Lowell  Institute,  February  i6th, 
1 869,  speaking  of  the  period  which  followed  the  establishment  of 
the  Phillips  Academy  at  Andover,  says  : 

"The  common  schools  and  the  town  grammar  schools  continued  lo  decline. 
In  the  busy  world  of  Massachusetts,  men  of  ability  found  more  profitable 
employment;  and  the  great  truth  was  not  yet  discovered  that  women,  as 
teachers,  managers  and  governors  of  boys  even  up  to  jnanhood,  are  often 
gifted  at  least  as  highly  as  men."  *  *  * 


;  Report  of  1876,  by  Hon.  B.  G.  NORTHROP,  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  the 
State  of  Connecticut. 


10  OUR   COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

"Academies  and  private  schools  grew  more  numerous;  sometimes  endowed 
by  public-spirited  individuals,  sometimes  by  grants  of  land  from  the  State, 
often  by  both,  and  usually  supported  in  part  by  fees  from  the  students.  In 
1834  there  were  more  than  nine  hundred  and  fifty  of  these  schools.*  Those 
under  the  supervision  of  resolute,  judicious  men,  who  knew  the  value  of  good 
teaching  and  how  to  secure  it,  and  sometimes  others,  which  by  a  fortunate 
accident  or  a  gracious  Providence  had  good  teachers,  flourished.  Hut  the 
greater  number  were  very  poor  schools;  so  also  were  most  of  the  town  schools; 
and  the  belief  and  conviction  that  most  of  the  common  schools  were  wretch- 
edly poor  became,  except  amongst  the  most  ignorant  of  the  teachers  them- 
selves and  the  most  benighted  of  the  people,  almost  universal." 

"The  laws  which  we  have  noticed  now  became  burdensome  to  the  people 
of  Massachusetts.  In  1789  a  new  law  was  passed  which  was  a  wide  departure 
from  the  original  law.  Instead  of  the  continuous  session  of  the  schools  |.n> 
vided  for  towns  of  fifty  families,  a  session  of  six  months  only  was  demanded. 
The  number  of  grammar  schools  previously  required  was  reduced  one-half: 
that  is,  one  for  two  hundred  families,  instead  of  one  hundred  as  before.  It 
was  not  long  before  the  Assembly  stepped  in  again  to  relieve  the  towns  of 
their  burden." 

"In  1824,  by  an  act  facetiously  called  'An  net  |>m\iding  for  common 
schools,' the  law  of  1789  was  repealed;  and  for  all  towns  of  less  than  five 
thousand  inhabitants,  instead  of  a  master  of  'good  morals,  well  instructed  in 
the  Latin  and  Greek  and  English  languages,'  a  teacher  or  teachers  must  be 
provided  '  well  qualified  to  instruct  youth  in  orthography,  reading,  writing, 
arithmetic,  English  grammar  and  geography,  and  in  good  behavior.' 

The  consequences  are  thus  pointed  out  by  Mr.  KMKRSON: 

"This  act  was  the  severest  blow  the  common  school  system  ever  received, 
not  only  because  it  shut  from  the  poor  children  of  all  but  a  few  towns  the 
path  which  had  always  laid  open  to  the  highest  order  of  education,  but 
because  it  took  away  a  fixed  standard  for  the  qualifications  of  teachers,  and 
substituted  no  other  in  its  stead."  *  *  *  "The  candidate  for  office  of  teacher 
being  released  from  the  necessity  of  an  acquaintance  with  the  learned  lan- 
guages, which  in  most  cases  implied  a  certain  degree  of  cultivation  and 
refinement,  and  amenable  to  no  rule  measuring  the  amount  of  mere  elements, 
which  only  were  required,  was  too  often  found  to  be  lamentably  deficient  even 
in  them." 

"The  effect  of  lowering  the  standard  of  instruction  in  the  public  schools 
became  to  attentive  observers  every  year  more  apparent.  For  a  time  the 
better  qualified  teachers  continued  in  the  service,  but  they  were  gradually 
supplanted  in  many  places  by  persons  who,  from  their  inferior  qualifications 
were  willing  to  do  the  work  for  a  lower  compensation." 


*  The  population  of  the  Slate,  (Massachusetts, )as  shown  by  the  census  of  1830,  was  hardly 
four  times  as  great  as  the  present  population  of  Cleveland. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  II 

If  further  proof  of  the  deterioration  of  the  common  schools  of 
Massachusetts  be  necessary,  it  will  be  found  in  abundance  in  the 
earlier  reports  of  HORACE  MANN,  the  first  Secretary  of  the  Board 
of  Education  of  that  Commonwealth.  Speaking  of  this  deterio- 
ration, he  says : 

"  Under  this  silent  but  rapid  corrosion  it  recently  happened  (1836)  in  one 
of  the  most  flourishing  towns  of  the  State,  having  a  population  of  more  than 
three  thousand  persons,  that  the  principal  district  school  actually  run  down 
and  was  not  kept  for  two  years."  (Page  50,  First  Annual  Report.) 

In  the  biography  of  Mr.  MANN,  it  is  said: 

"In  Massachusetts  the  common  school  system  had  degenerated  in  practice 
from  the  original  theoretic  views  of  the  early  Pilgrim  Fathers.  Common 
and  equal  opportunities  of  education  for  all  was  the  primitive  idea  of  those 
men  who  had  been  so  signally  made  to  feel  how  unequally  human  rights  were 
shared.  The  opportunities,  unparalleled  in  the  world's  history,  which  the 
establishment  of  thfe  Federal  Union  had  opened  to  all  classes  of  men  to  obtain 
wealth,  had  caused  the  idea  to  be  nearly  lost  sight  of,  and  the  common 
schools  had  been  allowed  to  degenerate  into  neglected  schools  for  the  poorer 
classes  only." 

As  an  instance  of  the  apathy  of  the  people  in  regard  to  com- 
mon schools,  we  may  quote  still  further  from  the  Life  of  HORACE 
MANN  an  account  of  a  Convention  held  in  the  city  of  Salem  in 
1837,  pages  91  and  92: 

"  One  gentleman,  who  made  one  of  the  first  speeches,  questioned  the  expe- 
diency of  endeavoring  to  get  the  educated  classes  to  patronize  public  schools. 
He  spoke,  he  said,  in  the  interest  of  mothers  who  preferred  private  schools 
for  their  children;  and  he  believed  the  reasons  that  they  had  for  this  would 
always  prevail;  they  would  have  their  children  grow  up  in  intimacies  with 
those  of  their  own  class." 

In  his  diary,  and  in  numerous  letters  to  Mr.  COMBE,  Mr.  MANN 
presents  for  nearly  every  town  he  visited  the  same  dark  picture. 
Everywhere  he  met  a  degree  of  apathy  or  open  opposition  suffi- 
cient to  discourage  any  one  who  had  not  within  him  the  spirit  of 
a  hero. 

The  early  history  of  education  in  the  State  of  Connecticut  was 
almost  identical  with  that  of  Massachusetts.  In  1650,  three  years 
after  its  enactment  by  the  Court  of  Massachusetts,  the  "  classic 
statute"  was  adopted  by  the  State  of  Connecticut  in  almost  the 


12  OUR   COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

same,  if  not  the  very  words  of  the  original.  Step  by  step  these 
two  States  kept  pace  with  each  other  in  almost  steady  retro- 
gression till  after  the  Revolution.  Shortly  after  the  war  had 
closed,  Connecticut  became  possessed  of  a  considerable  school 
fund  from  the  sale  of  public  lands  in  the  Western  Reserve,  and 
relying  exclusively  upon  this  for  the  support  of  her  schools,  she 
began  to  fall  behind  her  sister  State,  or  I  should  say  rather  to 
pass  her  in  the  steep  descent.  In  his  Centennial  Report  already 
referred  to,  Mr.  NORTHROP  says : 

"  The  multiplication  until  about  1840  of  academies  and  of  select  schools, 
more  or  less  permanent,  for  teaching  branches  now  universally  taught  in  the 
public  schools,  gives  clear  indication  of  the  inferiority  and  the  unsatisfactory 
condition  of  the  common  schools." 

Mr.  BARNARD,  in  his  Journal  of  Education,  page  154,  vol.  V., 
speaking  of  education  in  Connecticut,  says : 

"  Private  schools  not  only  for  the  higher  branches  of  an  English  education, 
and  for  preparation  for  business  or  college,  but  for  tfce  primary  studies,  were 
established  in  every  town  and  society  and  liberally  supported,  not  only  by  the 
rich  and  educated,  but  by  many  who  could  only  afford  to  do  so  by  making 
large  sacrifices  of  comforts  and  almost  the  necessaries  of  life,  rather  than  to 
starve  the  intellect  and  impoverish  the  hearts  of  their  children.  Taxation  for 
school  purposes  had  not  only  ceased  to  be  the  cheerful  habit  of  the  people, 
but  was  regarded  as  something  foreign  and  anti-democratic.  The  supervision 
of  the  schools  had  become  in  most  societies  a  mere  formality,  and  the  system 
seemed  struck  with  paralysis." 

In  the  History  of  Education  in  RHODE  ISLAND,  by  THOMAS 
WENTWORTH  HIGGINSON,  it  is  said: 

"The  public  school  system  of  this  State  dates  back,  as  distinctly  as  can  be 
the  case  with  any  institution,  to  the  labors  of  one  man." 

JOHN  ROWLAND,  successively  a  barber,  a  soldier  under 
WASHINGTON,  Treasurer  of  the  first  Savings  Bank  in  Provi- 
dence, President  of  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society,  and  a 
member  of  the  Mechanics' Association  in  1789,  began  to  work 
for  the  establishment  of  a  common  school  system  through  the 
agency  of  the  Association  last  named.  His  efforts  were  partially 
successful.  A  law  establishing  a  common  school  system  was 
enacted,  but  except  in  the  city  of  Providence,  the  law  met  with 
the  most  determined  opposition  throughout  the  State;  the  whole 


PAST   AND   PRESENT.  13 

measure  was  virtually  defeated  by  non-enforcement,  and  the  law 
itself  was  repealed  at  the  February  session,  1803.* 

On  page  23,  Mr.  HIGGINSON  says : 

"  For  twenty-five  years  after  the  defeat  of  JOHN  HOWLAND'S  enterprise, 
Rhode  Island  had  no  public  school  system  even  on  paper." 

In  1828  a  "school  act"  was  finally  passed,  and  the  machinery 
of  the  common  school  system  was  slowly  put  in  motion.  How 
tardy  were  the  blessings  which  had  been  expected  may  be  judged 
by  remarks  made  in  the  State  Assembly  of  1843,  by  Mr.  UPDIKE, 
on  the  introduction  of  a  bill  "  to  provide  for  ascertaining  the 
condition  of  the  public  schools  in  this  State,"  etc.  Mr.  UPDIKE 
stated  boldly  that 

"The  free  school  system,  as  it  existed,  was  not  a  blessing  to  the  State, 
except  in  the  city,  of  Providence,  and  possibly  in  a  few  other  towns  where 
a  similar  course  was  pursued.  *  *  Our  teachers  come  from  abroad,  are 
employed  without  producing  evidence  either  of  moral  character  or  their  fitness 
to  teach,  remain  in  the  schools  two  or  three  months,  and  within  twenty-four 
hours  of  the  close  of  the  month  are  gone  to  parts  unknown. " 

At  the  next  session  of  the  Assembly,  in  1845,  Mr.  UPDIKE 
said  : 

"  There  is  a  wide-spread  dissatisfaction  with  the  schools  as  they  are;  with 
the  inefficient  manner  in  which  the  system  is  administered;  with  the  shortness 
of  time  for  which  the  schools  are  kept, — although  they  are  quite  long  enough, 
unless  they  can  be  kept  by  better  teachers,"  etc.,  etc. 

What  the  causes  of  this  neglect  of  the  primary  schools  may 
have  been,  it  does  not  concern  us  to  inquire  at  any  length ;  but 
the  mention  of  one  at  least  may  not  be  without  service.  The 
early  settlers  brought  to  America  the  class  distinctions  which 
existed  in  the  mother  country.!  The  interests  of  those  who 
looked  to  a  university  education  as  essential  for  their  boys,  were 
soon  separated  from  the  interests  of  the  lower  classes,  especially 
in  the  matter  of  education.  The  schools  for  the  two  classes, 
except  for  children  under  seven  or  eight  years  of  age,  were  not 


*  History  of  the  Public  School  System  of  Rhode  Island,  by  THOMAS  WENTWORTH  HIG- 
GINSON, pp.  13-24. 

t  The  Catalogue  of  Yale  College  was  not  arranged  alphabetically,  but  in  order  of  rank, 
even  down  to  1773,  only  two  years  before  the  breaking  out  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 


14  OUR   COMMON    SCHOOL   EDUCATION. 

the  same.  The  lower  schools  were  in  consequence  neglected  by 
those  whose  care  was  essential  to  their  efficiency — in  fact  their 
very  life.  In  this  day  when  the  opinion  appears  to  be  growing 
that  the  education  of  the  laboring  man  should  be  confined  to  the 
narrow  limits  of  the  "three  R's,"  it  may  be  of  service  to  call  to 
mind  that  in  America  at  least  it  is  impossible  to  provide  sepa- 
rately for  the  education  of  people  of  limited  means,  and  those  of 
the  wealthier  classes.  The  effort  at  this  period  of  which  we  speak 
as  of  later  periods,  was  in  vain.  The  education  of  both  has 
always  suffered  in  common  in  this  country.  Especially  has  the 
influence  of  the  separation  been  fatal  to  the  education  of  the 
poor.  As  soon  as  the  interest  and  patronage  of  the  better 
educated  classes  is  withdrawn  from  the  public  schools,  they  must 
go  down.*  The  poor  will  not  accept  education  as  a  gratuity  from 
the  rich,  unless  provision  be  made  for  all  alike.  The  common 
schools  cannot  be  made  efficient  unless  it  is  to  the  personal 
interest  of  the  educated  classes  to  make  diem  so.  In  public 
education  every  class  distinction  must  be  obliterated  save  one 
and  that  distinction  is  between  the  educated  and  the  ignorant. 

Testimony  similar  to,  and  in  support  of  that  which  I  have- 
already  submitted,  might  be  swelled  to  volumes.  The  enactments 
of  Legislatures,  and  the  reports  of  committees  almost  without 
number,  are  full  of  evidence  that  the  common  school  system,  in 
the  first  quarter  or  half  of  the  present  century,  was  not  in  New 
England  regarded  as  a  system  "cheap  enough  for  the  poorest, 
and  i^ood  enough  for  the  best,"  but  that,  as  a  system  for  the  edu- 
tion  of  the  whole  people,  it  had  died  of  neglect  and  starvation  in 
its  mother's  arms,  f 

I  have  said  that  "cuttings  from  this  New  England  tree"  were 
planted  in  other  States  as  schools  for  the  poor ;  that  they  were 
not  received  "without  opposition,"  as  President  OILMAN  states; 


*  For  evidence  of  this  fact  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  earlier  Reports  of  HORACE  MANN, 
to  the  discussions  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Western  College  of  \  .  .N  1  ami  11. 

pnlilishcd  1835  and  1836;  to  the  Reports  of  the  Superintendents  of  Schools  for  the  States  of 
Pennsylvania  and  New  York;  to  tin-  experience  of  Virginia  and  every  other  Southern  Si. it.-. 
as  shown  in  letters,  speeches  and  public  documents  too  numerous  for  me  to  note 

t  "The  common  school  idea  may  have  worked  independently  from  other  centers;  *  *  *  but 
if  Virginia  be  the  mother  of  States  and  of  statesmen,  Massachusetts  is  the  mother  of  schools.1' 
(Mr.  HINSOAI.K'S  Address,  page  16.) 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  1$ 

but  that  almost  up  to  the  time  of  the  late  Rebellion  they  met  with 
opposition  bitter  and  protracted  wherever  the  effort  was  made  to 
domesticate  them  in  new  soil. 

As  an  introduction  to  evidence  on  this  point,  I  find  nothing 
better  than  an  extract  from  a  speech  of  Hon.  JAMES  A.  GAR- 
FIELD,  who  till  within  a  few  months  ago  had  his  home  under 
the  shadow  of  Hiram  College,  and  who  was  a  highly  respected 
predecessor  of  Mr.  HINSDALE  as  the  head  of  that  institution. 

While  the  Bill  for  the  Establishment  of  a  Bureau  of  Education 
was  pending  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  June  8th,  1876, 
Mr.  GARFIELD,  who  had  introduced  the  bill  said : 

"  Gentlemen  tell  us  there  is  no  need  of  this  bill;  the  States  are  doing  well 
enough  now.  Do  they  know  through  what  a  struggle  every  State  has  come 
up  that  has  secured  a  good  system  of  common  schools  ?  Let  me  illustrate  this 
by  the  example  of  Pennsylvania.  Notwithstanding  the  early  declaration  of 
WILLIAM  PENN:  'That  which  makes  a  good  Constitution  must  keep  it, 
namely,  men  of  wisdom  and  virtue — qualities  that  because  they  descend  not 
with  wordly  inheritance  must  be  carefully  propagated  by  a  virtuous  education 
of  youth,  for  which  spare  no  cost,  for  by  such  parsimony  all  that  is  saved  is 
lost;'  notwithstanding  that  wise  master-builder  incorporated  this  sentiment  in 
his  'frame- work  of  government,'  and  made  it  the  duty  of  the  Governor  and 
Council  '  to  establish  and  support  public  schools;'  notwithstanding  BENJA- 
MIN FRANKLIN,  from  the  first  hour  he  became  a  citizen  of  Pennsylvania, 
inculcated  the  value  of  useful  knowledge  to  every  human  being  in  every  walk 
of  life,  and  by  his  personal  and  pecuniary  effort  did  establish  schools  and  a 
college  for  Philadelphia;  notwithstanding  the  Constitution  of  Pennsylvania 
made  it  obligatory  upon  the  Legislature  to  foster  the  education  of  the  citizens; 
notwithstanding  all  this,  it  was  not  until  i833-'34  that  a  system  of  common 
schools,  supported  in  part  by  taxation  of  property  of  the  State  for  the  common 
benefit  of  all  children  of  the  State,  was  established  by  law;  and  although  the 
law  was  passed  by  an  almost  unanimous  vote  of  both  branches  of  the  Legis- 
lature, so  foreign  was  the  idea  of  public  schools  to  the  habits  of  the  people, 
so  odious  was  the  idea  of  taxation  for  this  purpose,  that  even  the  poor  who 
were  to  be  specially  benefited  were  so  deluded  by  political  demagogues  as  to 
clamor  for  its  repeal. " 

I  would  like  to  quote  at  length  Mr.  GARFI ELD'S  eloquent 
tribute  to  THADDEUS  STEVENS,  then  a  member  of  the  House,  for 
the  noble  stand  which  he  had  taken  in  behalf  of  this  law ;  but  lack 
of  space  forbids  us  to  do  more  than  give  a  brief  extract  relating 
to  the  proceedings  of  the  State  Legislature  at  its  session  held  in 
1835  = 


1 6  OUR    COMMON   SCHOOL   EDUCATION. 

"  Many  members  who  had  voted  for  the  law  had  lost  their  nominations,  and 
others  although  nominated  lost  their  election.  Some  were  weak  enough  t<> 
pledge  themselves  to  a  repeal  of  the  law;  and  in  the  session  of  1835  there  was 
an  almost  certain  prospect  of  its  repeal,  and  the  adoption  in  its  place  of  an 
odious  and  limited  provision  for  educating  the  children  of  the  poor  by  them- 
selves." 

From  the  fact  that  the  law  was  finally  sustained,  it  might  be 
inferred  that  the  common  school  system  was  at  length  established 
without  condition  or  danger  of  repeal,  and  that  its  blessings  were 
thenceforward  to  be  enjoyed  by  the  children  of  the  rich  and  poor 
alike.  Three  years  thereafter  it  was  submitted  to  the  vote  of  the 
districts  whether  they  should  accept  the  provisions  of  the  law  or 
not;  and  although  it  was  adopted  by  all  without  exception,  in 
1853,  nearly  twenty  years  afterward,  the  Superintendent  of  In- 
struction, ANDREW  G.  CURTIN,  reported : 

•'That  the  common  school  system  had  sadly  disappointed  the  expectations 
of  its  friends.  The  State  appropriation  being  received,  in  many  districts  no 
schools  were  opened,  no  teachers  employed;  the  money  was  applied  to  the 
repair  of  township  roads,  or  transferred  to  the  pockets  of  the  directors  them- 
selves as  compensation  for  their  official  services;  in  others,  schools  were  estab- 
lished that  were  a  mere  burlesque  on  the  cause  of  popular  education;  many  of 
the  school-houses  were  fitter  subjects  for  the  consideration  of  grand  juries  than 
for  the  purposes  of  their  dedications.  All  who  could  afford  it  carefully  with- 
held their  children  from  the  common  schools;  in  short,  the  system  of  public 
instruction  was  rapidly  becoming  a  by-word  and  reproach  to  the  Common- 
wealth." 

EDUCATION    IN    OHIO. 

Let  us  take  a  more  particular  view  of  common  school  educa- 
tion in  our  own  State.  We  shall  find  that  it  was  no  exception  to 
the  general  rule. 

Though  it  was  decreed  in  1785  that  one  thirty-sixth  part  of  the 
public  lands  of  the  State  should  be  reserved  for  the  maintenance 
of  public  schools  within  the  State;  though  the  great  Ordinance  of 
1787  proclaimed  that  religion,  morals  and  knowledge  being  essen- 
tial to  good  government,  schools  and  the  means  of  education 
should  forever  be  encouraged;  though  the  Constitution  of  the 
State,  adopted  1802,  proclaimed  that  the  means  of  instruction 
should  be  forever  encouraged  by  legislative  provision;  though 
taxes  had  been  levied  for  school  purposes  for  many  years;  though 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  17 

funds  were  accumulating  by  the  sale  of  school  lands  and  from 
other  sources,  Mr.  COGGESHALL,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Common 
Schools  of  Ohio,"  says :  "  There  were  no  public  schools  in  Ohio, 
in  1837,"  that  is,  thirty-five  years  after  the  admission  of  the  Terri- 
tory to  the  rank  and  dignity  of  a  State.  (Barnard's  American 
Journal  of  Education,  Vol.  VI.,  D..  86.) 

Again,  Mr.  COGGESHALL,  in  a  sketch  of  the  Life  of  SAMUEL 
LEWIS,  the  first  Superintendent  of  the  schools  of  the  State,  says  : 

"  He  began  his  work  in  the  spring  of  1837.  *  *  *  He  found  that,  except  in 
Cincinnati,  there  were  no  schools  in  the  State  practically  open  alike  to  rich 
and  poor."  Barnard's  Journal,  etc.,  Vol.  V.,  p.  729. 

In  1845,  ejght  years  after  the  first  effectual  steps  towards  the 
establishment  of  the  common  school,  the  first  Teachers'  Institute 
conducted  in  Ohio  was  held  in  Sandusky  by  SALEM  TOWN  of 
New  York,  and  M.  F.  COWDERY  and  A.  D.  LORD  of  this  State. 
Mr.  COGGESHALL  says  of  this  Institute : 

"  It  was  the  result  however  of  local  rather  than  general  interest;  but  that 
a  general  interest  in  such  opportunities  for  teachers  was  then  imperatively 
demanded,  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  in  many  districts  directors 
forbade  the  teaching  of  any  branches  but  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic,  and 
that  certificates  were  given  to  teachers  who  were  pedagogues  only  because 
school-keeping  was  easier  for  their  muscular  system  than  chopping  wood." 
(Barnard's  Journal,  Vol.  VI.,  p.  90.) 

Let  us  look  into  the  volumes  of  "  Transactions  of  the  Literary 
Institute  and  Western  College  of  Professional  Teachers"  which 
were  published  from  1834  to  1840.  But  before  citing  some  of  the 
evidence  which  is  to  be  found  in  these  records,  it  may  be  well  to 
glance  at  a  list  of  the  committees  of  the  association  in  which  we 
shall  find  striking  proof  of  the  low  standing  of  those  who  were 
then  engaged  in  the  instruction  of  the  children  of  the  people. 
Out  of  twenty-four  officers  of  State  sections  named  on  page  14, 
Vol.  I.,  nearly  one-half  were  private  school-masters,  and  most  of 
the  others  were  lawyers,  doctors  or  clergymen,  not  one,  so  far 
as  I  can  ascertain,  was  a  teacher  of  the  common  schools. 

The  titles  of  addresses  pertaining  to  the  lower  schools  were 
such  as  the  following  :  "  Report  on  the  Best  Method  of  Establish- 
ing and  Forming  Common  Schools  in  the  West,"  by  SAMUEL 
LEWIS  ;  "  On  Elevating  Public  School  Teachers,'''  by  Dr.  JOSEPH 


1 8  OUR   COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

RAY,  etc.,  etc.  A  few  lines  from  President  MONTGOMERY'S  Essay 
"On  the  Importance  of  Education,"  Vol.  III.,  page  153,  will  show 
the  spirit  of  many  of  the  papers  which  were  read  before  the 
College : 

"  Failing  in  trade,  bankrupt  in  business,  even  the  spendthrift,  all,  every  one, 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  unsuccessful  in  his  occupation,  calculated  to 
repair  his  fortune  in  the  school- master.  Nay,  the  very  sot  reckoned  on 
replenishing  the  intoxicating  cup  with  the  gleanings  of  a  country  school." 

Again,  in  an  eloquent  address  at  the  close  of  the  session  of 
1836,  the  Rev.  ALEXANDER  CAMPBELL,  referring  to  his  experience 
as  a  teacher  about  fifteen  years  before,  said: 

"  Books  without  philosophy,  and  teachers  without  science  or  art,  if  they 
were  only  at  a  low  price,  seemed  to  have  the  universal  sway."  Vol.  III., 
page  254. 

But  it  is  especially  in  a  discussion  on  the  examination  of  teach- 
ers, held  at  the  previous  session,  that  we*  find  the  most  direct 
and  explicit  testimony.  During  the  discussion,  EDWARD  D. 
MANSFIELD  said : 

"As  an  examiner  of  common  schools,  I  have  carefully  examined  their  statis- 
tics, and  inquired  into  the  manner  in  which  they  have  been  conducted.  The 
result  of  my  investigation  is  melancholy.  It  has  led  me  to  the  painful  conclu- 
sion that  the  college  of  the  people,  atjpresent,  furnishes  but  little  of  what  the 
people  ought  to  know. 

"I  have  examined  within  the  last  twelve  months,  one  hundred  and  fifty 
applicants  for  the  office  of  teacher.  The  requirements  of  the  law  are  the 
mere  rudiments  of  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic;  yet,  sir,  upon  these  simple 
matters  how  many  do  we  find  deficient !  and  are  yet  compelled  to  pass  them 
in  some  way,  or  deprive  the  country  of  its  teachers.  In  many  instances  the 
applicant  requests  us  not  to  examine  him  very  closely,  for  he  has  no  scholars 
beyond  the  Rule  of  Three!  and  consequently  had  no  practice.  There  is 
scarcely  one  teacher  in  ten  in  the  country,  who  has  thoroughly  studied  more 
than  the  ground  rules  of  this  science.  They  are  generally  deficient  in  what  a 
teacher  ought  to  know  best — the  reasons  of  things.  It  will  do  for  a  judge  to 
decide  without  reasons;  but  a  teacher  cannot  teach  without  showing  the 
reasons  of  rules.  Repetition  is  not  teaching.  Nor  is  this  all;  the  number  of 
those  who  cannot  read  wiih  proper  emphasis  and  pronunciation;  or  reading, 
do  not  understand  what  they  read- — is  lamentable."  (Transactions  of  College 
of  Teachers,  1835,  Vol.  II.,  p.  170.) 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  19 

The  following  are  the  remarks  of  Judge  LOOKER  on  the  same 
occasion  : 

"These  two  things,  sir,  the  want  of  a  sufficient  (support  for  the  teachers, 
and  the  inefficiency  of  the  present  modes  of  examining  them,  are  altogether 
inadequate  to  the  wants  of  the  rising  generation;  and,  sir,  in  my  opinion,  they 
are  an  injury  to  our  country  rather  than  a  benefit;  they  are  worse  than 
nothing.  *  *  I  have  spent  twenty  years  of  my  life  in  teaching,  and  have  had 
every  opportunity  of  witnessing  the  low  condition  of  our  schools."  (Ibid, 
P-  167.) 

Speaking  of  the  incompetency  of  teachers,  Judge  LOOKER  said : 

"  The  compensation  is  so  small  as  to  prevent  competent  men  from  engaging 
in  this  business.*  .  .  .  Why,  sir,  I  have  seen  those  who  could  neither  read 
to  be  understood  by  others  nor  themselves,  employed  to  give  instruction  to 
our  children.  This  ought  not  to  be.  Every  one  will  cry  out  against  it;  but 
why  do  they  not  provide  the  remedy?"  (Ibid,  p.  166.) 

Said  one  gentleYnan : 

"  I  am  called  on  to  examine  candidates  for  school  teachers  who  are  often 
destitute  of  the  very  elements  of  education.  A  knowledge  even  of  the  multi- 
plication table  is  not  always  to  he  procured;  as  for  grammar  and  spelling, 
these  are  even  proud  accomplishments,  and  we  are  glad  to  secure  them." 
(Ibid,  p.  164.) 

Were  such  things  said  to-day  in  our  educational  conventions, 
as  were  then  declared  to  be  generally  true  over  the  greater  part 
of  the  State,  there  would  be  an  indignant  protest  from  lown  and 
city,  because,  of  them,  at  least,  they  would  be  untrue.  But  on  that 
and  similar  occasions  not  a  voice  was  heard  in  behalf  of  the 
common  schools.  The  testimony  thus  given  against  them  was 
recognized  as  being  too  true. 

In  the  debates  of  the  Legislature,  shortly  after,  we  hear  the 
same  cry  raised.  At  the  session  of  1838,  Judge  JOHNSON  spoke 
as  follows  : 

"  We  are  in  the  habit  of  calling  ourselves  the  most  enlightened,  intelligent 
people  on  earth;  but  after  the  developments  of  this  evening  respecting  Prussia, 
and  even  Russia,  can  we  pretend  that  there  is  any  good  foundation  for  this 
habitual  self-applause  ?  *  *  *  But  what  is,  what  has  been,  the  state  of  common 
school  education  among  us  ?  I  well  remember  when  I  used  to  wade  three  miles. 


'  ••-  just  about  what  could  be  earned  by  working  men  on  the  farm,  and  lest  than 
could  be  earned  by  a  respectable  mechanic,  and  even  this  was  thought  to  be  good  pay. 


20  OUR    COMMON    SCHOOL    KDUCATION. 

over  my  little  knees  in  snow,  to  the  district  school.  The  population  was  sparse 
and  poor.  Our  school-house  was  built  of  logs,  without  glass  windows,  hut  with 
plenty  of  inlets  between  the  logs  for  air  and  light.  *  *  *  Our  teacher  was  a 
good  man  and  taught  all  he  knew.  But  his  attainments  werr  not  ^reat.  As 
to  astronomy,  he  never  had  an  idea  but  that  the  earth  was  as  flat  as  the  plate 
on  which  he  ate  his  breakfast;  and  as  to  mathematics,  the  difference  between 
the  numerator  and  denominator  of  a  vulgar  fraction,  was  a  mystery  of  science 
altogether  beyond  his  depth." 

If  we  turn  to  School  Reports,  which  President  HINSDALE 
speaks  of  as  self-laudatory,  we  meet  with  the  same  account  of  the 
condition  of  the  common  schools.  SAMUEL  GALLOWAY,  Secretary 
of  State,  and  ex-qffido  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools,  said 
in  his  annual  report  for  1845  • 

"It  is  impossible  even  to  conjecture  what  is  the  number  or  condition 
of  the  school  houses  in  Ohio:  but  it  is  more  than  probable  that  a  faithful 
description  would  embrace  a  grotesque  scenery  of  broken  benches,  rock- 
ing slabs,  broken  sashes,  absent  panes,  gaping  walls,  yawning  roofs,  and 
floors  bowing  without  furniture,  forcibly  suggesting  Falstaff's  account  of  his 
regiment:  '  No  eye  hath  seen  such  scare-crows.  Tnere's  but  a  shirt  and  a  half 
in  all  my  company,  and  the  half-shirt  is  but  two  napkins  tacked  together,  and 
thrown  over  the  shoulders  like  a  herald's  coat  without  sleeves.'  The  contrast, 
in  reference  to  all  other  items,  would  b*>  as  unfavorable  to  us,  as  in  that  which 
has  been  instituted."  *  *  * 

"Although  education  holds  an  acknowledged  superiority,  by  the  profession 
of  our  people,  and  in  intrinsic  merit  is  unrivaled  by  any  competitor,  yet,  it  ha> 
been  exiled  from  an  honorable  companionship  in  the  family  of  State  interests, 
and  has  been  thrown  out  like  a  poor,  despised  foundling,  half-clad  and  half- 
fed,  to  beg  for  protection."  (Doc.  No.  33 — Report  of  the  Secretary  of  State 
on  Condition  of  Common  Schools,  pp.  502,  503.) 

And  again  in  the  same  document,  speaking  of  the  qualifications 
of  teachers,  Mr.  GALLOWAY  says  : 

"  Elevated  and  commanding  as  the  talents  and  attainments  of  a  teacher 
ought  to  be,  one  obtains  license  to  teach  orthography,  who  replied  to  the 
question  'Spell  ocean,'  that  there  were  two  ways  of  spelling  it,  'otion  and 
oshion;'  another  who  spelled  'philosophy,'  'filosefey,'  and  another  who  spelled 
the  common  word  'earthly,'  'erthley.'  Upon  others  were  bestowed  the 
honor  of  teacher  of  arithmetic:  one  of  whom  could  not  tell  how  many  cwt. 
were  in  a  ton;  another  who  was  ignorant  of  the  multiplication  table,  and 
another  who  could  not  tell  the  cost  of  nine  cords  of  wood  at  $1.37^2  per  cord. 
Another  was  licensed  to  teach  geography  who,  in  reply' to  the  question,  '  How 
is  Virginia  bounded  ?'  answered,  '  By  Tennessee  on  the  north  and  Maryland 
on  the  east.'  These  are  but  a  few  of  many  specimens  communicated  by  friends 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  21 

of  education  as  evidences  of  the  kind  and  amount  of  qualifications  tolerated  in 
some  sections  of  our  country."     (Ibid,  p.  511.) 

But  evidence  in  regard  to  the  state  of  common  schools  in  Ohio 
only  a  few  years  ago  may  be  drawn  from  other  sources  than 
Examining  boards,  State  Legislators  and  Superintendents  of  educa- 
tion. We  have  the  the  testimony  of  the  pulpit,  which  is  as  direct 
and  pointed  as  any  that  we  have  already  submitted.  In  the 
November  number  of  the  Ohio  School  Journal,  published  in  1846, 
we  find  extracts  from  a  sermon  preached  by  the  Rev.  LEVERITT 
HULL  at  Sandusky,  during  the  session  of  the  first  Teachers'  Insti- 
tute held  in  this  State,  to  which  we  have  already  referred.  He 
said: 

"It  is  the  sober  conviction  of  men  well  qualified  to  judge,  that  the  entire 
system  of  select  and  high-schools*  and  academies,  has  been  and  is  still  greatly 
defective,  and  never  will  accomplish  what  we  so  much  desire.  Their  princi- 
pal defects  are  these  r  in  them,  the  first  principles  of  a  practical,  sound  and 
thorough  education  are  passed  over  or  neglected.  They  rear  a  superstructure 
without  a  foundation.  But  their  great  defect  is,  by  their  existence,  the  inter- 
ests of  district  schools  have  been  utterly  laid  waste,  and  the  mass  of  the  popu- 
lation are  left  untutored  and  untamed.  The  general  impression  has  been,  any 
body  can  teach  a  common  school,  because  it  is  common,  and  no  one  expected 
that  the  children  who  atttnd  the  district  school  could  learn  anything  but  evil. 
Hence  every  district  must  have  its  select  school,  and  no  teacher  qualified  to 
teach,  would  enter  a  district  school.  All  who  had  money,  and  cared  for  their 
children,  or  for  the  interests  of  education,  ha'-e  fostered  the  academy  or  select 
school. " 

We  have  also  the  testimony  of  teachers  themselves.  The  fol- 
lowing is  taken  from  Vol.  III.  of  the  "Ohio  School  Journal," 
published  in  1849,  under  the  editorship  of  Dr.  A.  D.  LORD,  who 
for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  was  identified  with  every 
great  educational  movement  in  this  State.  Dr.  LORD  thus  intro- 
duces the  article  from  which  we  make  a  short  extract : 

"  We  copy  from  the  'Ohio  Eagle'  the  following  severe,  but  just  and  truth- 
ful remarks  on  the  condition  of  common  schools  in  our  towns  and  villages. 
They  are  from  the  pen  of  an  intelligent  and  faithful  teacher  of  long  expe- 
rience and  much  observation: 

h     '  In   the   villages  and   towns    there    is  a  progressive  deterioration, 
according  to  the  numbers  of  population,  till,  in  places  of  from  three  to  five 


*He  does  not  speak  here  of  public  high  schools,  for  there  were  none  at  that  date. 


22  OUR    COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

thousand  inhabitants,  the  schools  are  found  to  have  reached  a  maximum  of 
degradation,  so  that  human  ingenuity  could  not  possible  render  them  more 
superlatively  contemptible.  Hence  our  towns,  and  especially  the  larger  ones, 
instead  of  being  centers  of  illumination,  are  points  at  which  all  the  scattered 
ray*  of  the  intellectual  darkness  which  pervades  the  surrounding  commu- 
nity are  concentrated  in  foci  of  the  intensest  blackness.'" 

PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  OF  VARIOUS  STATES  FROM   1853  TO   1858. 

We  have  seen  that  the  "  cuttings  from  the  New  England  tree," 
which  were  "  thickly  planted  by  the  Great  Lakes  and  in  the 
Valley  of  the  Mississippi  as  far  south,"  etc.,  were  only  cuttings 
from  the  stunted  shrub  which  was  to  be  found  at  the  time  in  the 
oldest  of  the  North-eastern  States.  Let  us  next  see  what  these 
cuttings  were,  and  how  they  grew  in  other  States  down  to  the 
time  of  the  civil  war,  when  another  kind  of  tree  was  planted  in  a 
soil  that  had  been  enriched  by  the  best  blood  of  a  noble  people, 
a  tree  under  which  poor  and  rich  alike  will  gather  for  protection, 
and  whose  leaves  shall  be  for  the  healing  of  the  nation. 

In  the  report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Education  of  ALABAMA 
it  is  said : 

"The  melancholy  reflection  still  obtrudes  itself  that  three-fourths  of  the 
youth  of  the  state  have  hitherto  gone  without  instruction  entirely,  or  have 
been  crowded  into  miserable  apologies  of  school  houses,  without  furniture  or 
apparatus  deserving  the  name,  and  still  oftener,  without  competent  teai-l> 
*  *  *  "Owls  and  bats  are  still  employed  to  teach  young  eagles  how  to  fly, 
because  they  will  work  cheap." 

ARKANSAS,  so  far  as  free  school  education  is  concerned,  seems 
to  be  a  universal  blank.  In  the  "  Education  Year-book"  of  1857, 
we  find  a  report  of  only  forty  schools  in  t,he  state,  with  but  thirty- 
one  teachers,  with  an  aggregate  of  more  than  $100,000,  current 
expenses.  In  the  following  year,  the  Commissioner  of  Common 
Schools  is  reported  to  have  said  : 

"Considering  the  almost  entire  failure  successfully  to  organize  and  establish 
Common  Schools  in  Arkansas,  at  present,  I  am  inclined  to  l>clieve  that  the 
interests  of  education  would  in  the  end,  be  promoted  by  a  su.-ptnMon  of  the 
sale  of  the  public  lands." 

CALIFORNIA.     The  Superintendent  says: 

"We  haw  no  free  school  tygteiH.  It  is  true  that  cities  are  empowered,  under 
certain  restrictions,  to  raise  means,  and  to  a  certain  extent,  to  maintain  fiee 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  23 

schools.  The  counties  may  or  may  not  levy  a  limited  tax  to  maintain  schools, 
but  in  some  densely  settled  counties,  no  tax  whatever  has  been  levied  for 
school  purposes." 

CONNECTICUT.  Under  the  able  superintendency  of  JOHN  D. 
PHILBRICK,  this  state  is  treated  of  as  hopeful,  but  when  we  learn 
that  the  average  wages  of  female  teachers  left  them  but  $1.75  per 
week,  after  their  board  of  $2, 50  was  paid,  we  may  readily  imagine 
that  the  service  they  performed  could  not  have  been  of  a  very  high 
grade.  "Labor  in  the  kitchen  was,  all  things  considered,  more 
remunerative,  and  indeed  in  the  rural  districts  of  that  state,  quite 
as  respectable." 

LOUISIANA.  So  late  as  1853,  many  directors,  whose  duty  it 
was  under  the  law  to  examine  teachers,  signed  orders  upon  the 
treasury  by  making  their  "marks."  In  the  "Education  Year-book" 
of  1858,  it  is  said> 

"For  reasons  thus  indicated,  the  school  system  of  Louisiana  can  scarcely  be 
said  to  be  in  successful  operation.  The  Governor  speaks  of  it  as  'almost  a 
failure. '  The  schools  of  one  or  two  parishes  in  New  Orleans  were  said  to  be 
good." 

DELAWARE.  The  record  of  the  "  Education  Year-book  "  is,  that 
this  State  "has  a  school  system  organized  wholly  upon  the  plan 
of  free  tuition  for  all  the  pupils,  and  a  school  within  the  reach  of 
every  family,"  but  the  report  of  the  Superintendent  for  the  year 
1855  represents  the  schools  as  in  a  "deplorable  state."  I  have 
neither  space  nor  time  even  to  summarize  his  specification  of 
faults,  the  greatest  of  which  is  gross  ignorance  among  teachers 
themselves. 

GEORGIA.  In  1854,  this  State  distributed  through  her  magis- 
trates, $23,000,  for  the  education  of  indigent  children.  This  is 
enough  from  which  to  estimate  the  educational  advantages  of  the 
poor  whites  of  Georgia. 

ILLINOIS.  The  average  wages  of  male  teachers,  was  $25  per 
month,  and  of  females,  $12.  There  were  over  4,000  schools  in 
the  State  and  the  amount  paid  for  teachers'  wages  in  79  counties, 
is  reported  to  be  $308,385,  less  than  $4,000  per  county,  and  less 
than  $80  per  school. 


24  OUR   COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

INDIANA.  The  "Education  Year-book,"  of  1858,  says:  "The 
cause  of  free  schools  is  most  emphatically  in  its  infancy  there," 
and  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  speaks  of  the  schools 
as  in  a  "transition  state"  but  expresses  high  hopes  of  the  future 
though  the  number  who  could  not  read  or  write  had,  from  1840 
to  1850,  mounted  up  from  38,000  to  75,000,  or  nearly  100  per 
cent.,  while  the  population  had  increased  but  50  per  cent,  in  the 
same  time. 

KENTUCKY  is  well  known  to  have  had  the  most  efficient  system 
of  schools  among  the  Southern  States,  but  measured  by  any  stand- 
ard you  please,  they  must  have  been  inferior  to  those  of  the  three 
States  lying  on  the  other  side  of  the  Ohio  River.  Her  school 
officers  have  never  confessed  their  inferiority,  but  having  spent 
three  months  in  1853  in  traveling  through  the  central  and  western 
parts  of  the  State,  my  own  personal  observation  enables  me  to 
say,  that  outside  of  the  city  of  Louisville,  there  were  no  public 
schools  which  were  patronized  by  people"  who  could  afford  to 
send  to  any  other. 

In  1856,  the  NEW  ENGLAND  schools  had  begun  to  feel  some- 
thing of  the  impulse  which  HORACE  MANN  had  sought  to  give  the 
schools  of  Massachusetts,  but  which  was  resisted  by  the  school- 
master as  long  as  he  could  resist — how  long  and  how  successfully 
can  be  ascertained  by  reference  to  the  reports  of  the  school  vis- 
itors of  the  city  of  Boston,  in  1845,  and  the  replies  thereto  which 
the  masters  were  goaded  to  make.  But  though  the  schools 
had  possibly  begun  to  feel  the  shock,  the  States  themselves 
had  done  comparatively  little  for  their  better  organization  and 
management  so  late  even  as  1856.  It  is  true  that  valuable 
agencies,  such  as  Normal  Schools,  Teachers'  Institutes,  etc.,  had 
been  set  to  work,  but  their  influence  had  not  been  felt  to  any  con- 
siderable degree,  except  in  a  few  leading  cities  and  in  the  more 
intelligent  districts  which  stood  readiest  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
advantages  of  the  times. 

VIRGINIA.     In  this  State,   nine  counties  and  two  towns  had 
adopted  free  schools,  that  is,  schools  for  rich  and  poor  alike.     In 
117  counties  and  two  towns,  there  were  pauper  schools  for  child- 
ren of  the  indigent.     If  we  need  again  that  attention  should  be 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  25 

be  directed  to  the  consequences  of  this  separate  education  of  the 
poor  and  rich,  we  have  it  already  stated  in  the  speech  of  C.  G. 
MKMMINGER,  Esq.,  on  the  occasion  of  inaugurating  the  common 
school  system  at  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  July  4th,  1856.  This 
extract  will  serve  also  to  inform  us  as  to  the  condition  of  popular 
education  at  the  same  time  in 

SOUTH  CAROLINA.     He  says  : 

"The  fund,"  that  is,  for  public  education,  "was  small,  and  was  entirely  ab- 
sorbed by  the  preferred  class,"  (the  poor.)  "The  rich  were  thus  excluded,  and 
the  benefit  being  confined  to  the  poor,  the  schools  degenerated  into  pauper 
schools,  and  pupils  and  teachers  descended  to  the  grade  at  which  they  are  now 
found  throughout  the  State.  No  one,  unless  urged  by  necessity,  would  accept 
an  education  which  could  only  be  granted  as  a  charity.  The  middling  classes 
of  society  were  unwilling  to  stigmatize  themselves  by  a  declaration  of  pauper- 
ism, and  the  result  has  been  here,  as  everywhere  else,  that  schools  for  the  poor 
have  signally  failed  in  the  main  objects  for  which  they  were  instituted." 

"Try  the  same  experiment  with  any  other  educational  institution,  let  it  be 
required  that  no  young  man  shall  find  entrance  into  the  South  Carolina  Col- 
lege, but  upon  the  declaration  that  his  parents  are  unable  to  educate  him. 
Such  a  regulation  would  be  fatal  to  its  existence — its  whole  tone  and  character 
would  be  destroyed  ;  and  if  enough  of  those  who  could  receive  such  a  bounty 
•could  be  found  to  secure  the  continuance  of  the  college,  they  would  soon  lose 
consideration  in  the  community,  and  professors  and  students  would  descend  by 
the  same  steps  which  the  free  schools  of  the  State  have  taken." 

PURPOSES    OF   THE    FOREGOING   HISTORICAL   SKETCH. 

The  foregoing  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  common  school 
system,  as  well  as  the  statements  of  many  witnesses  as  to  the 
actual  condition  of  the  schools  up  to  a  very  recent  date,  are 
submitted  to  show, 

First,  how  inaccurate  is  the  historical  sketch  with  which  Presi- 
dent HINSDALE  opens  his  paper.  To  establish  this,  however, 
would  be  of  very  little  importance;  but  by  showing  that  he  is 
in  error  when  he  says  "  we  yield  to  none  in  our  devotion  to  popu- 
lar elementary  instruction ;"  that  his  statement  is  exactly  contrary 
to  fact  when  he  says,  in  the  language  of  Dr.  GILMAN,  "every  new 
State  adopts  it  (the  common  school  system)  without  hesitation;" 
and  that  instead  of  being  the  "  growth  of  two  hundred  years," 
the  present  system,  in  all  its  essential  features,  is  hardly  fifty  years 
old,  we  go  very  far  toward  weakening  confidence  in  every  state 


26  OUR   COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 


ment  which  he  makes.  If  he  errs  so  greatly  in  regard  to  well- 
known  historical  facts,  what  blunder  is  he  not  likely  to  make  when 
he  confesses  that  he  has  only  "meagre,''  "vague"  and  "uncer- 
tain "  data  to  rely  upon  1 

Second.  I  desire  to  show  that  the  faults  of  the  schools  of  our 
times  are  owing  in  good  part  to  the  fact  that  the  great  majority  of 
teachers  of  the  present  day  are  the  pupils  of  the  teachers  and 
schools,  such  as  have  been  described  in  the  preceding  pages. 

Third.  My  purpose  is  to  show  that  the  enormous  increase  of 
expenditures  to  which  Mr.  HINSDALE  refers  is  the  necessary 
result  of  the  rapid  improvement  which  has  been  made  in  the 
physical  apparatus  of  education,  and  more  than  all  else  to  a 
growing  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  people  that  they  need  educators 
for  their  children,  not  mere  da^  laborers.  The  wages  of  a 
sculptor  are  higher  than  those  of  a  quarryman. 

But  we  are  not  yet  through  with  this  branch  of  our  subject. 
Our  brief  historical  sketch  is  an  account  of  the  gradual  sinking  of 
the  common  school  education  until  it  had,  as  Mr.  MANN  says, 
"been  nearly  lost  sight  of."  The  testimony  so  far  has  related  to 
the  general  condition  of  education  at  successive  periods  one,  two 
and  three  generations  ago,  rather  than  to  the  working  of  the 
schools  themselves ;  and  our  attention  has  been  directed  to  the 
moral  and  literary  qualifications,  or  more  appropriately  disqualifi- 
cations of  the  schoolmaster,  and  not  to  the  quality  of  his  teaching. 
One  would  suppose  this  to  be  enough,  for  if  the  schoolmaster  be 
uneducated,  how  can  he  be  an  educator  1  "As  is  the  teacher,  so 
is  the  school."  But  we  have  evidence  still  more  direct.  We 
have  the  testimony  of  those  who  went  to  school  a  few  years  after 
the  Revolution,  and  in  the  early  days  of  the  present  century  ; 
testimony  in  which  we  find  a  pretty  full  account  of  the  better  (?) 
work  which  was  done  at  those  periods.  But  inasmuch  as  it  is 
intended  to  rebut  the  evidence  of  Dr.  PEABODY,  and  to  disprove 
the  avowals  of  President  HINSDALE,  it  is  no  more  than  right  that 
we  should  place  their  testimony  before  the  reader. 

Let  us  then  turn  to  the  presentation  of  the  case  as  made  by  our 
critics. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  27 

PRESIDENT  HINSDALE  QUESTIONS  WHETHER  WE  ARE  MAKING  REAL 
EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS. 

I  quote  the  first  paragraph  in  which  MR.  HINSDALE  turns  to 
question  the  educational  progress  of  the  day : 

"In  view  of  the  foregoing  facts,  what  wonder  that  we  should  contemplate 
this  great  school  system  with  a  good  deal  of  complacency  !  What  wonder 
that  we  should  conclude  that,  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  we  arc  making 
rapid  educational  progress  !  With  few  exceptions,  the  teachers  and  other 
school  functionaries  >ay  we  are,  and  the  great  public  acquiesces  with  the 
schoolmasters.  With  the  exception  of  a  few  scarcely  audible  voices  to  the 
contrary,  there  is  a  want  of  either  the  inclination  or  the  courage  to  say' nay." 

"The  arguments  urged  to  prove  real  progress  in  great  degree  are,  increase 
in  the  number,  and  improvement  in  kind  of  school  houses,  more  and  better 
school  apparatus  and  furniture,  more  teachers  and  higher  wages.  *  These 

premises  do  not  legitimate  the  cenclusions.  *  *  *  The  most  important  con- 
ditions of  education  are  not  an  excellent  physical  apparatus;  they  are  compe- 
tent and  devoted  teachers  and  eager  pupils. 

"  But  the  eulogists  of  the  popular  system  *•*  *  claim  a  great  improvement 
in  teachers,  hooks  and  methods.  Generally  they  pass  lightly  over  the  qualities 
of  the  teacher,  *  *  but  they  make  up  for  their  reticence  en  this  point  by  the 
stress  they  place  on  books  and  methods."  "The  part  that  the  new  methods 
play  in  the  current  theories  of  education  is  something  wonderful,"  etc.,  etc. 

Here  is  the  entire  paragraph  in  which  President  HINSDALE 
puts  the  main  question  : 

"  Let  us  then  boldly  ask:  Is  the  quality  of  our  common  school  education 
improving?  Be  it  noted,  the  question  is  not  whether  our  school  system  has 
been  greatly  extended,  whether  more  children  enjoy  its  benefits,  whether  it 
more  money,  whether  there  are  more  and  more  learned  teachers,  or 
whether  the  physical  apparatus  has  been  greatly  improved — no  one  thinks  of 
denying  these  propositions.  Nor  is  it  whether  the  common  school  pupil  of 
to-day  is. taught  more  things  than  the  common  school  pupil  of  fifty  or  t 
hunded  years  ago,  for  that  question  is  as  undeniable  as  the  others.  But  the 
question  is  this:  Whether  we  read  and  write,  spell  and  cipher  better  than  our 
ancestors  one,  two  or  three  generations  ago." 

The  difficulties  of  the  inquiry  are  recognized  as  follows  : 
"At  the  outset  we  encounter  this  difficulty:  to  find  a  common  standard  of 
measure.  There  are  but  two  methods  of  procedure.  One  is  by  means  of 
historical  testimony,  written  or  traditional,  to  determine  the  attainments  of 
former  generations  of  pupils,  and  then  to  compare  them  with  the  attainments 
of  this  generation.  Such  testimony,  especially  in  a  written  form,  is  meagre, 
not  to  speak  of  its  vagueness  and  uncertainty.  The  other  method  is  to  take 


28  OUR   COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

the  opinions  of  those  yet  living  who  had    cither  by  experience  or  tradition, 
immediate  knowledge  of  the  instruction  formerly  given  in  tin    school-,.    " 
Hut  because  the  inquiry   is   difficult    we   should   not    shrink    from    it;    rather, 
using  such  methods  as  we  have,  let  us  essay  the  task." 

DIRECT    EVIDENCE    IMPOSSIBLE. 

Before  hearing  the  testimony  which  Mr.  HTN-PU.K  submits  as 
a  warrant  for  raising  the  doul>ts  which  he  has  here  so  boldly 
expressed,  it  may  be  well  to  speak  of  the  general  nature  of  the 
evidence  which  is  within  our  reach.  By  way  at  once  of  argument 
and  illustration,  we  may  refer  to  one  of  the  branches  in  which 
Mr.  HINSDALE  claims  a  deterioration  of  our  common  school  edu- 
tion.  For  instance: 

Take  the  matter  of  spelling.  What  evidence  has  MR.  HINSDALE 
found  to  prove  the  inferiorty  of  our  common  school  education  in 
this  respect  ?  He  says  that  he  has  given  twenty  years  to  the 
study  of  this  subject.  Would  he  not  have^bund  some  direct  and 
reliable  testimony  on  this  point  if  it  were  to  be  had?  But  he 
offers  none.  Exemplifying  the  old  adage,  which  we  shall  not 
quote,  he  only  asks  the  question,  "Whether  we  do  spell  better," 
etc.  We  have  found  some  testimony  for  him  on  this  point  but, 
as  we  shall  see,  it  is  not  evidence.  For  instance  : 

We  can  find  plenty  of  men,  of  scholarship  and  learning,  who 
will  tell  us  that  they  think  that  spelling  in  the  schools  has  dete- 
riorated within  the  present  generation  ;  but.  twenty  years  ago,  the 
Rev.  HEMAN  HUMPHREY  said  the  same  thing  and  somewhere 
about  twenty  years  before  that,  HOKAO  M  \\\.  \\IIII\M  11. 
I-OUI.E  and  others  expressed  opinions  to  like  effect,  as  to  the 
degeneracy  of  the  schools  in  this  impoiiant  branch  of  learning. 
Finally  we  come  to  NOAH  WEP.STEK  himself,  who  said  : 

"The  introduction  of  my  spelling-book,  first  published  in    1  jS },  prodi 
great   change  in  the   department  <>l    spelling,    and  from  the    infoiinatir.i 
gain,    spelling    was   taught   with  more  care    and    accuracy  for    iv.tniy  <>\  tm.ie 
years  after  that    period,    than  it  has  been   since  the  introduction  of   multiplied 
books  and  studies." 

Thus  we  are  carried  back  to  within  thirty  years  of  the  public  a 
tion  of  Johnson's  Dictionary,  the  first  standard  of  English  orthog- 
raphy. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  29 

But  in  a  serious  inquiry  as  to  the  quality  of  our  common  school 
education,  what  is  such  guess-work  worth  ?  Is  it  possible  that 
spelling  has  been  becoming  worse  and  worse  since  within  twenty- 
five  years  of  the  very  origin  of  spelling-books  ?  If  it  has,  so  much 
the  worse  for  the  spelling-books  and  so  much  the  worse  for  the 
way  spelling  has  been  taught  in  the  schools  of  the  past. 

It  will  be  observed  that  each  individual  referred  to  only  thinks 
that  there  had  been  deterioration  in  spelling.  Not  one  feels  so 
confident  as  to  say  flatly  that  it  is  so.  Now  is  it  not  altogether 
probable  that  the  impression  among  adults  that  there  are  more 
poor  spellers  among  the  young  than  there  were  when  they  were 
young  themselves,  has  grown  upon  them  as  they  have  become 
more  critical  ?  When  they  were  faulty  spellers  themselves  they 
did  not  see  the  defect  in  others,  but  as  they  have  improved  by 
practice,  they  begin  to  forget  the  mistakes  of  their  youth.  How- 
unreliable  such  vague  impressions  are,  especially  regarding  things 
near  and  remote  either  in  space  or  time,  is  well  pointed  out  by 
HERBERT  SPENCER,  in  his  "Study  of  Sociology." 

Such  is  the  only  direct  evidence  we  can  get  at,  but  "I  think," 
and  "from  the  information  I  can  gain,"  are  not  admissable  as 
evidence,  unless  the  ground  of  the  opinion  or  the  information 
itself  is  laid  before  the  court.  The  only  direct  evidence  which 
could  be  of  any  worth  would  have  to  be  obtained  in  some  such 
way  as  this  : 

If  the  spelling  of  adults  were  in  question,  we  should  have  to 
compare  the  spelling  of  large  numbers  of  people  of  different 
classes  now  living,  with  the  spelling  of  a  like  number  of  people  in 
the  same  walks  of  life,  one,  two  or  three  generations  ago,  Those 
of  to-day  would  have  to  be  selected  from  districts  widely  separated 
from  each  other,  and  so  would  those  of  the  past.  It  would  not 
do  to  take  a  hundred  or  two,  say  from  Providence,  R.  I.,  only, 
and  compare  their  orthography  with  that  of  their  ancestors  a 
hundred  years  before,  for  Providence  may  be  up  to  the  general 
standard  of  to-day,  but  might  not  have  been  then. 

But  it  is  not  whether  we  spell  better  than  our  ancestors  that 
concerns  us  in  this  inquiry,  for  that  would  afford  us  no  test  of  the 
quality  of  the  instruction  now  given  in  the  best  graded  schools. 


3°  OUR   COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

The  adults  of  1877  were  educated,  the  most  of  them  at  least,  in 
schools  as  they  were  taught  by  a  former  race  of  school  masters.* 
No,  the  comparison  would  have  to  be  between  the  work  of  boys 
and  girls  of  to-day,  and  that  of  corresponding  classes  of  boys  and 
girls  fifty  or  a  hundred  years  ago.  Cities  in  different  parts  of  the 
country,  and  country  towns  where  graded  schools  now  exist,  would 
have  to  be  drawn  upon  for  the  manuscripts  of  children  of  corres- 
ponding ages  in  this  and  former  days  and  the  number  of  misspell 
ings  in  each  counted.  It  is  only  by  such  a  spelling  matt  h  of 
generations  that  the  improvement  or  deterioration  of  our  schools 
in  this  branch,  could  be  established  to  the  satisfaction  of  any 
tribunal  that  had  respect  for  its  own  reputation. 

As  we  have  said,  direct  evidence  is  impossible,  and  the  very 
ground  for  this  statement  is  good  proof  that  the  pupils  in  the 
graded  schools  of  the  Western  Reserve,  at  least,  are,  at  the 
same  ages  better  practical  spellers  than  those  of  the  schools 
which  Dr.  Peabody  says  "did  more  for  their  pupils  than  is  done 
now."  The  impossibility  of  which  we  speak,  arises  not  from  the 
fact  that  such  manuscripts  have  not  been  preserved,  but  from  the 
fact  that  there  never  were  any  to  preserve,  certainly  none  in  such 
quantity  as  to  justify  any  conclusion  as  to  the  comparative  merits 
of  the  schools  of  to-day  and  the  schools  of  the  past. 

The  truth  is  that  the  boy  of  a  generation  or  two  ago,  even  in 
the  best  of  schools,  except,  it  might  be,  one  in  a  thousand,  did 
no  writing  except  a  few  lines  in  his  copy  book,  and  copy 
one  or  two  sums  every  day  or  two  in  his  arithmetic  manuscript 
We  have  good  reasons  to  believe  that  more  manuscript  work, 
and  hence  more  spelling  was  done  last  year  in  the  city  of  Cleve- 
land than  was  done  in  Boston  during  the  entire  first  forty  years  of 
the  present  century. 


l'>v  way  of  illustrating  the   very  <|ueer  mistakes  which  .ire  often  made  by  men  of  more 
than  ordinary  culture  when   they  come   to  speak  of  school  education.   I    in.iy    '|tiot«-  from   a 
lett.-r   recently   received   from    the    Hon.    K.    K.    WIMTH.     President   .if    Piirdn 
whose  distinguished  career  .1,  an  nln.  .itor  in  this  State  is  well  known  to  us  all.      Mr    Win  IK 

"A   few    years  since    I    heard   a   Cleveland   editor.  •  d,  lament    the   decline  in 

spelling,  and  he  sharply  charged  the  result  to  modern  methods  of  tr.u  him;  s|>rlling,  and  to 
a  general  neglect  of  the  subjt-i  i  in  il»  schools  II.-  Mated,  as  an  illustration,  that  he  n 
lawyer's  briefs  and  political  speeches,  the  spelling  of  which  was  v.-rv  dis.  ifdilabli-.  H<-  «a^ 
taken  back  and  puzzled  when  I  asked  him,  at  the  close  of  the  In  tun-,  if  most  of  these  briefs 
and  speeches  were  not  written  by  men  forty  years  of  age  and  upwards.  He  reluctantly 
admitted  they  were,  and  of  course  thereby  admitted  thai  the  *|x.-lliiij;  was  the  result  of 
former  teaching  or  neglect.  This  was  nearly  twenty  years  ago. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  31 

This  may  be  circumstantial  evidence,  based  on  "grounds  of 
theory,"  if  you  like,  Mr.  President,  but  in  the  estimate  of  men  of 
practical  common  sense  it  will  go  far  to  prove  that  the  pupils  in 
our  schools  are  now  taught  the  art  of  spelling  to  better  advantage 
than  in  the  schools  of  the  past.  To  teach  spelling  practically, 
there  is  no  way  so  effective  as  that  of  frequent  practice  in  writing 
with  constant  correction  of  errors  in  orthography. 

From  the  fact  that  in  addition  to  the  oral  spelling,  which  we  do 
not  neglect,  we  require  also  the  daily  writing  at  dictation  of  long 
spelling  lessons,  and  the  careful  preparation  of  a  great  number  of 
papers  in  answer  to  written  and  printed  questions,  which  are  ex- 
amined by  teachers,  and  then  re-written  and  corrected  by  the 
pupils,  no  doubt  can  be  entertained  that  our  children  have  ten, 
nay  fifty  times  more  practice  in  spelling  than  they  did  even  in  the 
halcyon  days  of  NOAH  WEBSTER,  to  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that 
they,  are  taught  by 'the  only  method  that  can  make  good  spellers  ; 
— and  if  an  examination,  such  as  I  have  indicated  could  be  had, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  boys  and  girls  in  our  schools  would 
spell  the  common  vocabulary  better  than  those  who  have  occu- 
pied their  places  at  the  school  desk  at.  any  previous  period  in  the 
history  of  American  education. 

Before  submitting  testimony  as  to  work  which  was  really  done 
in  the  schools  of  the  earlier  days  of  the  Republic,  and  down  to 
times  which  are  only  a  little  beyond  the  recollection  of  the 
older  pupils  now  in  our  schools,  let  us  glance  at  the  evidence 
upon  which  Mr.  HINSDALE  depends  to  prove  the  inferiority  of 
our  elementary  instruction. 

.  In  the  first  place,  our  attention  is  directed  to  the  doubts  of  a 
"  considerable  number  of  people  who  do  not  see  that  what  the 
schoolmasters  tell  them  is  true."  Mr.  HINSDALE  continues : 

"  But  the  other  day  a  lady,  forming  one  of  a  company  where  this  question 
was  raised — a  lady  of  much  more  than  ordinary  intelligence  and  character — 
said:  "All  I  can  say  about  it  is,  my  children  are  not  so  far  along  with  their 
studies  as  I  was  with  mine  at  their  ages."  A  man  has  only  to  keep  his  ears 
open,  at  most,  to  provoke  frequent  conversations  on  this  subject,  to  learn  that 
the  class  who  will  give  similar  testimony  is  a  large  and  respectable  one.  In 
fact,  while  it  is  the  understanding  that  we  have  been  making  great  advances  in 
the  quality  of  our  common  education,  and  while  it  takes  some  courage  to  say 
nay,  there  is  unexpressed  a  large  amount  of  incredulity  on  this  point,  and  a 


32  OUR    COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

widespread  dissatisfaction  with  the  results  of  the  popular  system.  Reference 
is  1  it-re  made  chiefly  to  intelligent  persons  outside  the  teaching  profession  who 
.In  not  make  especial  prelensions  to  culture.  These  persons  may  lie  wniny, 
but  they  are  entitled  to  l>e  heard." 

'•  In  the  second  place,  there  is  a  class  of  highly mltuivd  men, 
some  of  them  educators,  who  do  not  join  in  the  paeans  to  the 
prevalent  system.  On  the  contrary,  they  say  Hie  present  result*  are 
inferior  to  the  best  results  t>f  a  century  ago.  For  example,  the 
Report  of  the  School  Committee  of  Cambridge,  Massachusetts 
for  1875,  in  a  comparison  of  these  results,  sa\ 

"  '  There  is  n  </so//  In  hrlirve  that  /HOIV  ami  lirltrr  ('•<»//.  was  done  by  our  schools 
in  the  early  days  «;/'  thf  /,Vy<«/>/iY  titan  i's  uc<-oi/i{>lixhed  now.' 

"'fhis  report  \\a>  \\ntten  l»y  Dr.  A.  I'.  l'i •.  \i;nnv  of  Harvard  College. 
Again,  in  an  address  iK-livered  before  the  Massachusett.s  (on \cnt ion  of 
Teachers  in  January,  1876,  hi.  I'i.\i:m.\  returns  to  the  subject,  thus: 

"  'The  schools  of  former  generations  in  New  England,  (in  most  other  parts  of 
the  country  the  common  school  is  a  very  modern  institution,)  though  by  any 
now  recognized  standard  of  comparison  very  far  Bferior  to  the  present,  did 
much  more  for  their  pupils  than  is  done  now. ' 

"He  says  the  former  condition  of  things,  its  merits  as  well  as  demerits,  has 
become  obsolete;  still  he  'believes  it  accomplished  more  for  the  fit  education  of 
the  citizens  than  is  effected  under  the  present  regime.'  This  testimony,  given 
under  the  shadow  of  our  oldest  college,  may  be  mistaken,  but  it  cannot  be 
whistled  out  of  the  way." 

Omitting  some  repetitions,  I  believe  that  this  is  the  sum  of  the 
testimony  submitted  by  Mr.  HINSDALE  outside  of  the  West  Point 
argument  and  authorities.  The  latter  are  reserved  for  special 
consideration  further  on. 

If  this  is  all  that  requires  attention  just  here,  the  query  may  be. 
raised,  why  I  reply  at  so  great  length  as  I  shall  do.  In  answer, 
let  me  say  again,  as  I  said  at  the  beginning,  that  I  shall  not 
confine  myself  to  the  review  of  Mr.  HINSDALE'S  paper.  He 
expresses  here  some  very  common  prejudices  in  regard  to  the 
elementary  instruction  in  our  schools.  The  parties  complaining 
have,  as  he  says,  "  a  right  to  be  heard,''  and  more  than  that,  I 
would  say  that  they  have  a  right  to  ask  ot  us  to  show  the  grounds 
on  which  we  base  our  claims  to  improvement  in  the  public 

*  The  italics  are  our  own. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  33 

schools.  Furthermore,  I  desire  to  collect  and  arrange,  in  con- 
venient form,  materials  for  others  to  use  in  the  discussion  of 
a  question  which  is  of  immediate  interest  to  all.  Let  us  then 
hear  the 

COUNTER    TESTIMONY. 

It  may  be  well  enough  to  continue  the  evidence  from  Harvard 
College  while  we  have  the  testimony  of  Dr.  PEABODY  fresh  in 
mind.  Let  us  then  call  the  President  of  Harvard. 

President  ELIOT,  in  his  inaugural  address  in  1869,  said: 

"  The  improvement  of  the  schools  has  of  late  years  permitted  the  College 

to  advance  the  grade  of  its  teaching,  and  adapt  the  methods  of  its  later  years 

to  men  instead  of  boys.     This  improvement  of  the  College  reacts  upon  the 

schools  to  their  advantage,  and  this  action  and  reaction  will  be  continuous."* 

Mr.  ELIOT  pronounced  these  words  on  the  occasion  of  his 
inauguration,  and  ip  the  presence  of  an  assembly  such  as  is  rarely 
gathered  together.  The  recollections  of  some  there  could  verify 
or  disprove  what  he  said.  The  policy  of  the  institution  was  shaped 
accordingly,  the  conditions  of  admission  were  greatly  advanced, 
and  yet  Prof.  PEABODY  tells  us  in  various  phraseology,  but  always 
to  the  same  effect :  "  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  more  and 
better  work  was  done  by  our  schools  in  the  early  days  of  the 
Republic  than  is  accomplished  now."  But  let  us  next  call  one 
who  some  years  ago  occupied  the  chair  which  President  ELIOT 
so  worthily  fills  at  the  present  time. 

EDWARD  EVERETT — a  graduate  in  1811,  a  Professor  of  Greek 
Literature  and  finally  President  of  Harvard  College,  a  Minister  to 
England,  a  Governor  of  the  State,  and  first  Chairman  of  the  Board 
of  Education  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts — was  cer- 
tainly a  man  of  high  culture,  and  surely  had  "exceptional  oppor- 
tunities for  observation."  Of  the  preparatory  schools, — Phillips' 


*When  this  was  read,  President  HINSDALE  asked  whether  Mr.  ELIOT  speaks  of  the 
public  schools.  My  reply  was  that  I  supposed  he  did  not  have  them  in  mind  at  the  time, 
but  they  could  not  be  excluded  for  the  reason  that  the  public  high  schools  are  represented  by 
many  of  the  best  members  of  the  College.  As  I  write  this,  I  learn  that  the  second  in  the 
sophomore  class  of  some  two  hundred  is  a  graduate  of  the  West  High  School  of  this  city, 
which  is  now  represented  there  by  six  of  its  former  pupils.  The  Boston  boys,  from  the 
Public  Latin  School,  on  entering  Harvard,  usually  take  the  head  of  the  class.  It  is  some- 
times paradoxically  said  they  are  "too  well  prepared;"  that  is,  they  are  so  well  fitted  for  the 
c  ourse  that  the  first  year's  work  does  not  sufficiently  tax  their  powers. 


34  OUR   COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

Academy  at  Exeter,  and  the  Boston  Latin  School,  which  I  sup- 
pose had  few  if  any  equals  in  the  country,  he  says : 

"As  to  the  learned  languages  and  cla>sical  literature  .generally,  they  were 
very  poorly  taught  in  those  days.  I  do  not  like  to  speak  disparagingly  of 
men  and  things  gone  by.  The  defects  were  at  least  villa  aevi  non  hominum, 
but  defects  they  were  of  the  grossest  kind.  The  study  of  the  Latin  and  Greek 
was  confined  to  the  cursory  reading  of  the  easier  authors:  a  little  construing 
and  parsing,  as  we  called  it.  The  idiom  and  genius  of  the  languages  were 
not  unfolded  to  us,  nor  the  manner  of  the  different  writers,  nor  the  various 
illustrative  learning  necessary  to  render  the  text-book  which  was  read  intelli- 
gible. \Ve  got  the  lesson  to  recite,  and  that  was  all."  * 

In  one  of  his  addresses,  after  an  interesting  description  of  the 
discomforts  and  hardships  of  the  boys  in  attendance  upon  the 
Latin  school  of  Boston  during  the  earlier  part  of  the  present 
century,  Mr.  Everett  says  : 

"The  standard  of  scholastic  attainment  was  certainly  not  higher  than  that 
of  material  comfort  in  those  days.  We  read  pretty  much  the  same  books,  or 
books  of  the  same  class  in  Latin  and  Greek  as  we  read  now,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  Greek  Testament,  but  we  read  them  in  a  very  superficial  manner, 
'i  here  was  no  attention  paid  to  the  philosophy  of  the  languages,  to  the  deduc- 
tion of  words  from  (their  radkal  elements,  to  the  niceties  of  construction, 
still  less  to  prosody."  + 

And  again  : 

"In  fact,  Mr.  Chairman,  there  are  few  things  in  which  the  rapid  pro- 
gress of  our  country  is  so  apparent  as  in  the  institutions  for  education.  The 
learned  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education  (Rev.  Dr.  SEARS)  has  just 
alluded  to  the  defects  of  the  schools  in  the  most  remote  parts  of  the  Common- 
wealth, unfavorably  situated  in  this  respect.  I  dare  say  his  representations 
are  correct;  but  the  younger  part  of  this  audience  would  not  believe  me,  no 
one  scarcely  whose  own  recollection  did  not  confirm  it,  would  believe  me,  if  1 
were  to  describe  the  state  of  what  were  called  good  schools  when  I  was  myself 
a  school-boy.  *  *  I  allude  to  the  condition  of  the  best  public  schools  of  that 
day."J 

Hon.  HENRY  BARNARD,  of  Rhode  Island,  who  has,  perhaps, 
made  more  valuable  contributions  to  the  history  and  literature  of 
American  education  than  all  others  together,  gives  his  testimony 
as  follows: 

"It  may  be  said  with  perfect  truth  that  the  schools  and  colleges  were  left 
very  much  to  haphazard.  A  person  who  could  do  nothing  else"  was  considered  a 
proper  person  to  keep  school;  and  though  the  College  at  <  ambridge,  where  the 
standard  was  at  the  highest,  required  of  its  few  instructors  some  qualifications 


(id's  American  Journ.i I  of  I  ilm  noon.  \  nl.  \  II.,  page  349. 
\  Barnard's  American  Journal  of  I- due  niion.  Vol.  VII.,  page  348. 
;  Barnard's  American  Journal  of  Kducation,  Vol.  VII.,  page  344. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  35 

higher  than  this  of  inability  to  serve  the  public  elsewhere,  its  standard  was  as 
low  as  we  have  seen.  There  was  no  science  of  education  in  the  country;  there 
seems  to  have  been  little  thought,  much  less  hope  of  improving  it.  The 
schools  and  colleges  were  probably  at  not  quite  so  high  a  standard  as  they 
were  at  some  period  before  the  Revolutionary  War.  Certainly  they  were  no 
better." 

The  testimony  of  two  such  eminent  witnesses,  both  "highly- 
cultured"  men,  and  both  of  "exceptional  opportunities  for  ob- 
servation," is  probably  enough  to  show  how  much  more  the 
preparatory  schools  of  former  generations,  in  New  England,  did 
for  their  pupils  than  is  now  done  ! 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  common  schools,  and  see  how  much 
"  more  and  better  work  "  they  did  than  is  accomplished  now. 

THE    BOSTON    COMMON    SCHOOLS. 

That  the  reader  may  understand  the  evidence  pertaining  to  the 
schools  of  Bostoc,  it  will  be  best  perhaps  to  explain  their  organi- 
zation at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  and  for  fifty  years  thereafter. 
We  shall  do  this,  as  far  as  possible,  in  the  language  of  Mr.  W.  B. 
FOWLE,  who  probably  entered  the  schools  as  a  pupil  about  the 
year  1800,  and  who  became  in  time  a  noted  teacher  and  an  author 
of  many  school  books.  Aside  from  the  evidence,  at  which  it  is 
our  main  purpose  to  get,  this  sketch  will  not  be  without  interest  to 
any  one  who  is  engaged  in  the  work  of  teaching,  or  who  is  interested 
in  school  affairs.  It  may  be  of  service,  too,  as  showing  that  the 
testimony  adduced  really  covers  the  whole  ground.  Besides  two 
Latin  schools,  in  which  only  Latin  and  Greek  were  taught,*  there 
were  two  other  schools  called 

Writing  Schools.— These  were  the  only  public  schools  of  Bos- 
ton up  to  1790.  Writing  and  arithmetic  were  the  principal 

*  Boys  had  been  admitted  into  the  Latin  schools  at  the  early  age  of  seven  years;  in  1790 
the  age  was  increased  to  ten  years  by  the  new  system,  but  as  before  no  provision  was  made 
in  the  Latin  school  for  their  instruction  in  English,  in  penmanship  or  in  any  of  the  common 
branches.  "To  remedy  this  serious  defect,  the  Latin  scholars  were  allowed  to  attend  the 
writing  schools  two  hours,  forenoon  and  afternoon,  and  about  thirty  availed  themselves  of 
the  privileges,  although  they  were  obliged  to  neglect  one  school  to  attend  the  other,  and 
unpunctuality  and  disorder  in  all  the  schools  were  the  natural  consequences."  But  the 
teachers  of  the  Latin  schools  also  sometimes  opened  private  schools,  in  which  case  the  neces- 
sity of  attending  the  writing  schools  was  obviated.  "The  teachers  of  the  Latin  school  in 
connection  with  A  writing  master,  kept  a  private  English  school  in  the  Latin  school  room, 
while  the  writer  was  a  pupil  there,  in  1808,  and  the  writer  himself  attended  a  private  school 
kept  by  a  reading  master  in  another  part  of  the  town.  Of  course,  it  was  a  passport  to  favor 
in  every  public  school  to  attend  the  master's  private  school  also;  and  those  who  went  only 
to  the  public  school  were  considered  a  somewhat  inferior  caste."  (W.  B.  Fowle,  page  330, 
Vol.  X,  Barnard's  American  Journal  of  Education.) 


36  OUR   COMMON   SCHOOL   EDUCATION. 

branches  taught.  "Although  reading  and  spelling  were  also  taught 
in  them,  this  instruction  was  only  incidental,  being  carried  on — 
we  cannot  say  "attended  to"— while  the  teachers  were  making  or 
mending  pens  preparatory  to  the  regular  writing  lessons." 

"The  only  schools  in  the  city  to  which  girls  were  admitted  were  kept  by 
the  teachers  of  the  public  schools,  between  the  forenoon  and  afternoon  ses- 
sions; and  how  insufficient  this  chance  for  an  education  was.  may  be  gathered 
from  the  fact  that  all  the  public  teachers  who  opened  (these)  private  schools 
(for  girls)  were  uneducated  men,  selected  (for  the  writing  schools)  for  their  skill 
in  penmanship  and  in  the  elements  of  arithmetic."  * 

Reading  Schools. — In  1 790,  girls  were  admitted  for  the  first  time 
to  the  public  schools  of  Boston.  In  consequence  of  the  increased 
number  of  pupils,  and  on  account  of  the  incompetency  of  the 
writing  masters,  one  more  Writing  School  was  established,  and  three 
new  schools,  called  "  Reading  Schools."  One  Writing  and  one 
Reading  School,  were  placed  in  a  school  building,  one  occupying 
the  first  floor,  the  other  the  second.  Thf  boys  and  girls  were 
kept  separate,  the  former  attending  one  school  in  the  morning 
and  the  other  in  the  afternoon,  and  the  latter  alternating  with 
them.  The  masters  on  the  two  floors  were  entirely  independent 
of  each-  other.  This  "  double-headed  "  system,  as  it  was  called, 
was  maintained  down  to  about  1850,  possibly  in  some  schools 
even  later. 

The  studies  pursued  in  these  schools  may  be  learned  from  two 
extracts  from  the  records  :  "One  regulation  requires  the  Writing 
Masters  to  teach  "writing  and  the  branches  (of  arithmetic)  usually 
taught  in  town  schools,  including  vulgar  and  decimal  fractions." 
"Another  regulation  required  the  Reading  Masters  to  teach  spell- 
ing, accent  and  the  reading  of  prose  and  verse,  and  to  instruct 
the  children  in  English  Grammar,  epistolary  writing  and  compo- 
sition." f 

With  this  explanation,  we  may  readily  understand  the  following 
passages  taken  from  the  Memoir  of  Mr.  BINGHAM.  In  the  light 
of  evidence  like  this,  we  may  estimate  the  declaration  of  Mr. 
PEABODV  at  its  true  value  when  he  says  that  "  there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  more  and  better  work  was  done  by  our  schools  in  the 


*W.  B.  Fowle,  in  his  Memoir  of  Caleb  Bingham,  Barnard's  Journal,  Vol.  V,  page  330. 
t  "Memoir  of  Caleb  Bingham,"  Barnard's  Journal,  Vol.  V,  page  333.  ' 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  37 

early  days  of  the  Republic  than  is  done  now ;"  and  we  shall  duly 
appreciate  the  courage  of  Mr.  HINSDALE  when  he  avows  the 
belief  that  the  present  results  of  the  schools,  and  especially  of 
the  graded  schools,  "are  inferior  to  the  best  results  of  a  century 
ago/' 

THE   WRITING    SCHOOLS. 

' '  Furthermore,  it  was  ordered  that  in  the  writing  schools  the  children 
should  begin  to  learn  arithmetic  at  eleven  years  of  age;  that  at  twelve  they 
should  be  taught  to  make  pens.  Until  eleven  years  old,  all  the  pupils  did  in  a 
whole  forenoon  or  afternoon  was  to  write  one  page  of  a  copy-book  not  exceed- 
ing ten  lines.  When  they  began  to  cipher,  it  rarely  happened  that  they 
performed  more  than  two  sums  in  the  simplest  rules.  These  were  set  in  the 
pupil's  manuscript,  and  the  operation  was  there  recorded  by  him.  No  printed 
book  was  used.  Such  writing  and  ciphering,  however,  were  too  much  for 
one  day,  and  the  boys  who  ciphered  only  did  so  every  other  day. 

"  If  it  be  asked,  'how  were  the  three  hours  of  school-time  occupied?'  the 
answer  is,  in-  one  of  three  ways:  in  mischief,  in  play  or  in  idleness.  The 
pupils  were  never  taught  to  make  their  own  pens,  and  it  occupied  the  master 
and  usher  two  hours  of  every  session  to  prepare  them.  The  books  were  gen- 
erally prepared  by  them  out  of  school  hours.  The  introduction  of  metallic 
pens  relieved  the  teachers  from  their  worst  drudgery,  and  left  them  free  to 
inspect  the  writing  of  their  pupils,  which  was  impossible  before." 

THE   READING   SCHOOLS. 

"  In  the  reading  schools,  the  course  was  for  every  child  to  read  one  verse 
of  the  Bible,  or  a  short  paragraph  of  the  Third  Part.  The  master  heard  the 
first  and  second,  that  is,  the  two  highest  classes,  and  the  usher  heard  the  two 
lowest.  While  one  class  was  reading,  the  other  studied  the  spelling  lesson. 
The  lesson  was  spelled  by  the  scholars  in  turn,  so  that  the  classes  being  large, 
each  boy  seldom  spelled  more  than  one  or  two  words. 

"  In  grammar,  the  custom  was  to  recite  six  or  more  lines  once  a  fortnight, 
and  to  go  through  the  book  three  times  before  any  application  of  it  was  made 
to  what  was  called  parsing." 

These  statements  will  become  to  the  reader  living  realities  as 
he  reads  the  following  sketch  of  Mr.  TILESTON,  who  is  often 
kindly  alluded  to  in  Mr.  EVERETT'S  school-addresses  as  one  of 
the  best  teachers  of  his  day.  Mr.  FOWLE  says  of  him : 

"  He  loved  routine,  and  probably  if  he  had  taught  school  a  century,  he 
would  never  have  improved  any  arrangement  of  it.  Printed  arithmetics  were 
not  used  in  the  Boston  schools  until  after  the  writer  left  them;  and  the  custom 
was  for  the  master  to  write  a  problem  or  two  in  the  manuscript  of  the  pupil 


409528 


OUR   COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 


OTHKB  HAY.  No  boy  was  allowed  to  cipher  till  he  \v.i.-  ele\en  years 
old,  and  writing  and  ciphering  \\IKI  NKVKR  performed  on  the  same  day. 
Master  TlLBSTON  had  thus  been  taught  by  Master  I'RIK  KIR,  and  the  sums  he 
set  for  his  pupils  were  copied  exactly  from  his  old  manuscript.  Any  boy  could 
<  opy  the  work  from  the  manuscript  of  any  further  advanced  than  himself,  and 
the  writer  never  heard  of  any  explanation  of  any  principle  of  arithmetic  while 
hf  was  at  school.  Indeed,  the  pupil  believed  that  the  master  could  not  do  the 
sums  he  set  for  them;  and  a  story  is  told  of  the  good  old  gentleman,  which 
may  not  be  true,  but  which  is  so  characteristic  as  to  afford  a  very  just  idea  of 
the  course  of  instruction,  as  well  as  of  the  simplicity  of  the  superannuated 
pedagogue.  It  is  said  that  a  boy  who  had  done  the  sum  set  for  him  by 
Master  TII.KSION,  carried  it  up,  as  usual,  for  examination.  The  old  gentle- 
man, as  usual,  took  out  his  manuscript,  compared  the  slate  with  it,  and 
pronounced  it  wrong.  The  boy  went  to  his  seat  and  reviewed  his  work,  but 
finding  no  error  in  it,  returned  to  the  desk  and  asked  Mr.  TILESTON  to  be 
good  enough  to  examine  the  work,  for  he  could  find  no  error  in  it.  This  was 
too  much  to  require  of  him.  He  growled,  as  his  habit  was  when  displeased, 
but  he  compared  the  sum  again,  and  at  last  with  a  triumphant  smile  exclaimed  : 
'  See  here,  you  nurly  (gnarly)  wretch,  you  have  got  it  'If  four  tons  of  hay  cost 
so  much,  what  will  seven  tons  cost?'  when  it  should  fee,  'If  four  tons  of  Eng- 
lith  hay  cost  so  a  so.'  Now  go  and  do  it  all  over  again.'  " 

The  following  "  Memorandum  of  an  eminent  Clergyman,  who 
was  educated  in  the  best  schools  in  Boston  just  before  the  Kcvu 
lation,"  we  copy  from  a  volume  of  the  Massachusetts  Common 
School  Journal,  Vol.  XII,  pages  311  and  312.  The  notes  are  by 
the  editor  of  the  Journal: 

"At  the  age  of  six  and  a  half  years,  I  was  sent  to  Mastei  |'>IIN  I.<>\  M.I  rs 
I^itin  school.  The  only  requirement  was  reading  well;  but,  though  fully  quali- 
fied, I  was  scut  away  t<>  Matter  GRIFFITH,  a  private  teacher,  to  learn  to  read, 
write  and  spell."  *  "I  learned  the  English  Grammar  in  DiKvorth's  Spell 
ing  Book  by  heart.  Entered  LUVKI.L'S  school  at  seven  year>.  I.<>\  M  i.  was 
a  tyrant,  and  his  system  one  of  terror.  Trouncing*  was  common  in  the  school. 
*  SAM.  BRADFORD,  afterward  Sheriff,  pronounced  the  I'  in  Ptolemy,  and 
the  younger  LOVKI.I.  rapped  him  over  the  head  with  a  heavy  ferule.  +  *  *  * 


*  Trouncing  was  (icrforined  by  stripping  the  boy,  mounting  him  upon  another's  back,  and 
whipping  him  with  birch  rods  before  the  whole  school. 

t  We  saw   this    done   by  another   Boston  teacher  about   thirty  years  ago,  and  when  we 
•rated  with  him  upon  the  danger  of  inflicting    such  a  blow  upon  such  a  spot,   '  (),  the 
caitiffs,'  saiil  he,  '  it  i-  i;ood  for  them  !'     About  the   same   time  another  teacher,  who  i 
strike  his  pupils  upon  the  hand  so  that  the  marks  and  bruises  were   visible,  was  waited  upon 
by  a  committee  of  mothers  who  lived  near  the  school,  and  had  been  annoyed  by  the  outcries 
of  the  sufferers.     The  teacher  promised  not  to  strike  the  boys  any  more  upon  the  htn 
the  women  went  away  satisfied.      Hut  instead  of  inflicting   blows  upon  the  hand,  he  inflicted 
them  upon  the  soles  of  the  feet,  and  made  the  punishment  more  severe. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  39 

We  studied  Latin  from  8  o'clock  till  12,  and  from  I  till  dark.  *  *  *  After  one 
or  two  years,  I  went  to  the  town  school  to  Master  HOI.BROOK,  at  the  corner 
of  West  street,  to  learn  to  write;  and  to  Master  PROCTOR,  on  Pemberton's 
Hill,  in  the  southeast  part  of  Schollay's  Building.  My  second,  third  and 
fourth  years  I  wrote  there,  and  did  nothing  else. 

"I  entered  college  at  the  age  of  fourteen  years  and  three  months,  and  was, 
equal  in  Latin  and  Greek  to  the  best  in  the  Senior  Class.  Xenophon  and 
Sallust  were  the  only  books  used  in  college  that  I  had  not  studied."  *  *  * 

"The  last  two  years  of  my  school  life  nobody  taught  English  grammar  or 
geography  but  Col.  JOSEPH  WARD,  who  was  self-taught  and  set  up  a  school  in 
Boston.  *  •  * 

' '/  never  saw  a  map  except  in  Ccesar's  Commentaries,  and  did  not  know  what 
that  meant.  Our  class  studied  -Lowth's  English  Grammar  at  college.  At 
Master  PROCTOR'S  school,  reading  and  writing  were  taught  in  the  same  room 
to  girls  and  boys  from  seven  to  fourteen  years  of  age,  and  the  Bible  was  the 
only  reading  book.  Dilworth's  Spelling  Book  was  used  and  the  New  Eng- 
land Primer.  The  master  set  sums  in  our  MSS.,  but.  did  not  go  further  than 
the  Rule  of  Three." 

The  above  testimony  shows  the  amount  and  kind  of  work 
which  was  done  in  the  Boston  schools  about  the  time  of  the  Rev- 
olution, and  from  that  period  down  to  the  end  of  the  first  decade 
of  the  present  century.  Many  more  pages  might  be  filled  with 
evidence  to  like  effect ;  but  so  long  as  this  remains  unquestioned, 
I  refrain  from  adducing  any  more  in  regard  to  the  education  of 
youth  in  the  earlier  days  of  the  Republic.  But  before  we  pass  to 
a  later  period,  I  would  respectfully  ask  whether  it  is  possible  for 
any  man,  in  the  exercise  of  ordinary  good  sense,  to  conceive  the 
notion  that  schools  such  as  have  been  brought  before  us  in  this 
testimony,  "did  more  for  their  pupils  than  is  now  done,"  especially 
in  the  graded  schools  of  our  large  towns  and  cities. 

Let  us  now  look  at  the  work  of  the  third  and  fourth  decades. 
This  period  differs  from  the  former  in  that  it  was  marked  by  the 
beginning  of  a  revival  the  results  of  which  are  just  now  making 
themselves  felt.  If,  however,  any  one  supposes  that  some  magic 
power  intervened  to  lift  the  schools  to  a  higher  plane,  without 
the  application  of  those  agencies  which  we  now  rely  upon  to  im- 
prove our  systems  of  instruction,  he  will  be  soon  convinced  of  his 
error  if  he  will  but  glance  over  the  pages  of  the  "American 
Journal  of  Education,"  published  in  Boston  from  1826  to  1830, 
and  the  "Annals  of  Education,"  which  succeeded  it  from  1831  to 


40  OUR   COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

1839.  WILLIAM  RussELL^the  editor  of  the  former,  and  W.  C. 
WOODBRIDGE,  the  editor  of  the  latter,  cannot  yet  be  forgotten  by 
American  .scholars.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  anything  which 
appeared  under  the  names  of  these  men,  or  which  they  endorsed 
js  worthy  of  confidence.  I  have  not  space  to  quote  from  these 
volumes  at  any  considerable  length,  and  must  therefore  content 
myself  with  a  few  sentences  which  seem  to  summarize  the  opin- 
ions of  only  two  or  three  of  the  most  prominent  contributors. 

We  first  quote  from  an  address  on  the  "Common  Errors  of 
Education,"  which  was  delivered  at  Brooklyn,  Conn.,  and  which 
we  find  in  Vol.  IV  of  the  "Journal."  The  author  was  Rev.  SAM- 
UEL J.  MAY,  who  was  one  of  the  ablest  men  of  his  day,  and  was 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  quality  of  the  education  which 
prevailed  at  that  time.  Speaking  of  the  little  children  who  "are 
ranged  on  uncomfortable  benches,  condemned  to  sit  still  if  pos- 
sible, perhaps  their  hands  folded,  the  greater  part  of  three  long 
hours  in  each  half  day,  literally  doing  nothing,"  he  says:  "No 
attempt  is  made  to  excite  thought,  communicate  ideas,  to  awaken 
curiosity,  to  impart  knowledge."  *  *  *  "  For  months  or  a  whole 
year  they  are  kept  drilling  upon  the  alphabet,  and  for  another 
year  must  pour  over  columns  of  syllables  and  words  of  which  not 
one  in  twenty  can  they  understand." 

How  different  is  the  picture  of  the  little  children  in  the  modern 
graded  school,  where,  instead  of  that  enforced  idleness  which 
stupifies,  we  find  cheerful  industry  in  that  which  educates  while  it 
interests  the  mind.  How  different  the  results.  Instead  of  spend- 
ing months  or  a  year  on  the  alphabet,  and  quite  commonly  a 
second  year  over  the  columns  of  a  spelling  book,  the  average 
child  is  now  brought  to  the  reading  of  one  of  the  standard  Second 
Readers  in  a  single  year ;  in  the  same  time  he  learns  the  combi- 
nations of  integers  in  addition,  subtraction,  multiplication  and 
division  within  the  limit  of  tens ;  he  learns  generally  to  write  upon 
the  slate  whatever  he  can  read,  besides  being  taught  music  and 
drawing  according  to  his  capacity  to  learn.  Surely  this  is  pro- 
gress, provided  of  course  that  the  mind  of  the  child  be  not  over- 
taxed, of  which  there  is  little  danger  so  long  as  his  instruction 
partakes  of  the  nature  of  amusement. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  41 

What  Mr.  MAY  has  to  say  about  the  teaching  of  grammar  and 
geography  is  not  to  the  point  of  the  present  inquiry,  but  he  is 
equally  severe  in  his  comments  on  the  prevailing  errors  of  instruc- 
tion in  these  branches ;  errors  which  left  the  intelligence  about 
where  they  found  it,  and  the  higher  faculties  of  the  mind  wholly 
untouched.  Of  arithmetic,  he  says  in  substance  that  it  is  taught 
in  such  a  way  that  a  child  learns  only  the  mechanical  processes 
without  so  much  as  suspecting  that  there  is  a  principle  involved 
in  the  rules.  In  the  common  mode  of  teaching  reading,  he  says 
that  teachers  allow  children  to  "read,  day  after  day  and  month  after 
month,  passages  from  which  they  receive  no  very  definite  ideas, 
until  at  last  their  pupils  come  to  suppose  that  the  whole  art  of 
reading  consists  in  calling  words  correctly  and  rapidly  in  the  suc- 
cession in  which  they  may  happen  to  stand— this  is,  in  fact,  all 
that  the  greater  part  do  acquire."  Again,  in  speaking  of  reading 
the  Bible,  he  says,:  "  Thus  the  most  momentous  truths  and  sub- 
lime doctrines  *  *  *  are  gabbled  over  merely  as  an  exercise  in 
what  is  called  reading."  * 

Another  writer,!  whose  name  is  not  given,  treats  of  the  same 
subjects  at  greater  length  and  quite  as  severely  as  Mr.  MAY.  By 
way  of  illustrating  the  almost  universal  defect  in  the  methods  of 
teaching  arithmetic,  he  says  of  himself  that  he  was  "nei'er  made 
to  comprehend"  the  rules  of  addition  and  subtraction,  and  became 
disheartened  and  embarrassed.  He  continues  thus  : 

"True  it  is  that  I  persevered,  and  after  several  years  was  able  to  'cipher' 
with  ease ;  but  my  whole  art  was  merely  mechanical;  I  understood  not  the 
reason  even  of  the  simplest  operation,  and  was  able  to  resolve  those  problems 
only  which  were  precisely  similar  to  what  I  had  formerly  done.  1  never  made 
any  attempt  at  an  ingenious  analysis  of  complicated  questions,  but  took  (he 
numbers  and  placed  them  in  certain  positions,  added  or  subtracted,  multiplied 
or  divided  agreeably  to  the  direction  of  the  rule,  and  when  the  answer  ap- 
peared, could  no  more  tell  why  it  was  the  correct  one  than  if  it  had  been 
produced  by  the  sleight  of  juggler,  or  had  been  the  result  ol  a  chemical 
combination." 

One  would  not  risk  much  by  saying  that  the  experience  of  most 
of  those  who  received  their  education  thirty  or  forty  years  ago  was 


*  American  Journal  of  Education,    1879,  Vol.  IV.,  pp.  217 — 223. 
1  Vol.  II,  p.  157,  American  Journal  of  Education,  Boston,  1827. 


42  OUR   COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

similar  to  that  of  the  writer  of  the  foregoing  paragraph.  Those 
who  have  since  become  teachers  bear  almost  unanimous  testi- 
mony to  this  defect  in  their  early  instruction  in  this  branch.  Only 
by  subsequent  study  have  they  become  aware  how  little  they 
understood  of  the  subjects  they  had  "ciphered"  through  in  their 
school  days. 

But  let  us  turn  to  Vol.  V.  of  the  "Annals."  Here  we  find, 
among  many  other  articles  of  interest  and  importance  as  bearing 
on  the  subjects  of  our  inquiry,  notes  of  visits  to  the  schools  of 
•'  one  of  the  large  commercial  towns  of  the  most  enlightened  part 
of  our  country."  The  article  is  wiitten  at  the  request  of  the 
editor,  who  remarks  that  the  "  names  of  persons  and  places  are 
omitted  out  of  regard  for  the  feelings  of  those  concerned ;"  but 
from  some  general  remarks,  and  from  the  number  of  schools  re- 
ferred to,  we  judge  that  the  place  was  the  city  of  Boston.  Of  the 
spelling  exercises,  he  says  that  when  one  "  guessed  the  right  or- 
thography" of  a  word,  "he  'went  up.'"  ,Of  the  exercises  in 
arithmetic,  he  gives  a  description  which  would  be  ludicrous  if  it 
were  not  of  so  serious  a  thing  as  the  misspent  time  and  energy 
of  thousands  of  children  ;  we  can  well  afford  to  omit  it  after  what 
has  been  said  by  Mr.  MAY  and  others  on  the  same  subject.  In 
regard  to  reading  he  says  : 

"  I  heard  some  of  the  pupils  read  from  Pierpont's  National  Reader,  and 
from  their  manner  of  reading,  I  was  almost  led  to  conclude  that  they  did  not 
learn  anything."  '  *  "There  was  such  a  low  mumbling  of  words  that  I 
obtained  but  few  ideas  from  what  was  passing  over  the  lips  of  the  reader:  and 
in  the  whole  exercise  there  was  evidently  very  little  of  mental  activity." 

In  regard  to  writing,  he  says  : 

"A  description  of  this  exercise  would  be  simila»  to  that  which  should  por- 
tray the  same  exercise  as  exhibited  in  those  country  schools  of  \ew  England 
into  which  the  spirit  of  improvement  had  not  yet  entered;  where  the  teacher 
sits  in  his  chair  and  attends  to  his  pupils  as  they  are  continually  coming  for- 
ward with  'bad  pens.' " 

On  a  preceding  page  I  have  represented  the  modes  of  govern- 
ment in  the  Boston  schools;  and  inasmuch  as  this  matter, 
important  as  it  will  be  conceded  to  be,  is  not  in  question,  I  will 
not  quote  what  the  writer  says  about  the  loud,  harsh  tones 
of  the  teachers,  which  saluted  his  ears  in  all  the  schools,  nor  of 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  43 

the  blows  which  he  saw  inflicted  on  the  heads  of  the  "little 
ones."  Well  may  the  writer  raise  the  question  :  "  If  such  is  the 
state  of  the  schools  in  one  of  the  most  highly-favored  towns  of 
the  State,  what  can  be  expected  from  the  smaller  and  less-favored 
villages  and  widely-extended  townships  ?"  * 

Passing  to  the  ninth  and  last  volume  of  the  series,  I  find  an 
extract  from  the  Second  Annual  Report  of  HORACE  MANN,  the 
Secretary  of  the  State  Board  of  Education.  He  writes  as  follows 
in  regard  to  the  subject  of  "  Reading  and  Reading  Books  :" 

"My  information  is  derived  principally  from  the  written  statements  of  the 
School  Committees  of  the  respective  towns — gentlemen  who  are  certainly 
exempt  from  all  temptation  to  disparage  the  schools  they  superintend.  The 
result  is,  that  more  than  eleven-twelfths  of  all  the  children  in  the  reading 
classes  in  our  schools  do  not  understand  the  meaning  of  the  words  they  read; 
that  they  do  not  master  the  sense  of  the  reading  lessons,  and  that  the  ideas 
and  feelings  intended  by  the  author  to  be  conveyed  to,  and  excited  in  the 
reader's  mind  still  rest  in  tke  author's  intention."  '  *  "It  would  hardly 
seem  that  the  combined  efforts  of  all  persons  engaged  could  have  accomplished 
more  in  defeating  the  true  objects  of  reading." 

Having  submitted  the  testimony  of  men  of  high  position  and 
character,  men  as  well  or  better  known  to  the  whole  country  for 
scholarship  and  general  ability  than  Dr.  PEABODY  or  Prof.  CHURCH, 
men  whose  special  business  it  was  to  examine  into  the  work  done 
in  the  schools  from  forty  to  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  who  may  be 
supposed  to  have  had  an  extensive  knowledge  of  that  of  which 
they  have  affirmed ;  and  finally  of  men  who  are  known  to  have 
made  a  critical  study  of  the  methods  of  instruction  appropriate  to 
primary  and  grammar  schools,  having  submitted  the  abundant 
and  explicit  testimony  of  such  men,  what  can  we  think  of  the 
declaration  of  Prof  CHURCH  to  the  effect  that  we  have  made  no 
improvement  on  the  "good  old  system?"  If  we  have  not,  it  is  in 
vain  that  PESTALOZZI,  FROEBEL,  MANN,  BARNARD,  HALL,  CAR- 
TER, MAY,  PEIRCE,  PAGE,  WOODBRIDGE,  RUSSELL  and  EMERSON 
have  lived  and  labored  in  this  cause ;  in  vain  have  we  in  the  present 
day  studied  the  writings  of  these  men,  and  tried  to  carry  out  the 
principles  of  education  which  they  advocated;  and  to  sum  up 
the  whole  matter,  in  vain  is  an  attempt  made  to  exercise  reason 
in  the  management  of  educational  affairs. 

*Pp.  494 — 498,  Vol.  V.',  Annals  of  Educatiou,  1835. 


44  OUR    COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

I  raise  no  question  as  to  the  honesty  or  candor  of  the  men  who 
have  volunteered  to  give  impulse  to  the  reactionary  feeling  against 
common  schools,  which  is  generally  making  itself  felt  through- 
out the  country.  That  they  think  they  are  right  is  as  unquestion- 
able as  the  proof  that  they  are  wrong.  They  have  manifestly 
judged  from  insufficient  data.  Because  they  happened  to  fall 
tinder  the  instruction  of  good  teachers,  they  suppose  that  the 
education  of  the  State  and  nation  was  in  good  hands  when  they 
were  boys.  One  other  hypothesis,  that  is  that  they  do  not  .see 
things  as  they  did  when  they  were  young,  may  be  less  obnoxious 
to  their  pride.  They  may  choose  as  they  piease  either  alternative  : 
one  or  the  other  they  will  have  to  accept. 

How  great  the  danger  of  error,  in  making  up  our  judgments  in 
reference  to  such  matters,  is  thus  pointed  out  by  HERBERT 
SPENCER,  in  the  "  Study  of  Sociology,"  p.  79  : 

"How  testimonies  respecting  objective  facts  aie  thus  perverted  by  the  sub- 
jective states  of  the  witnesses,  and  how  we  have  to  be  ever  on  our  guard 
against  this  cause  of  vitiation  in  sociological  evidence  may  indeed  be  in- 
ferred from  the  illusions  that  daily  mislead  men  in  their  comparisons  of  past 
with  present.  Returning  after  many  years  to  the  place  of  his  boyhood,  and 
finding  how  insignificant  are  the  buildings  he  remembered  as  so  imposing, 
every  one  discovers  that  in  this  case  it  was  not  the  past  was  so  grand,  but  that 
his  impressibility  was  so  great  and  his  power  of  criticism  so  small.  II- 
not  perceive,  however,  that  the  like  holds  generally ;  and  that  the  apparent 
decline  in  various  things,  is  really  due  to  the  widening  of  his  experiences  and 
the  growth  of  a  judgment  no  longer  so  easily  satisfied.  Hence  the  in 
witnesses  may  be  under  the  impression  that  there  is  going  on  a  change  just  the 
reverse  of  that  which  is  really  going  on  ;  as  we  see,  for  example,  in  the  notion 
current  in  every  age,  that  the  size  and  strength  of  the  race  have  been  de- 
creasing, when,  as  proved  by  bones,  by  mummies,  by  armour,  and  by  the 
experience!  of  travellers  in  contact  with  aboriginal  races,  they  have  been  on 
the  average  .increasing." 

Turning  from  this  more  general  evidence  into  which   1   have 

led,  I  submit  the  following  extract  from  the   Report  of  the 

Superintendent  of  the  Schools  of  Boston,  for  the  year  1857.     It 

will  serve  to  show  how  slow  the  march  of  progress  has  been  where 

circumstances  have  been  most  favorable.     Mr.  I'IIII.KKICK  says  : 

"In  my  visits,  it  was  very  uncommon  to  hear  in  any  of  these  schools  a 
single  question  or  remark  by  the  teacher  which  had  any  reference  to  the  under- 
standing of  the  children.  In  many  cases,  the  reading  was  but  little  more  than 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  45 

the  mechanical  pronunciation  of  an  unknown  tongue.  There  is  a  text-book 
in  daily  use  in  all  these  schools  entitled  'Spelling  and  Thinking  Combined;' 
but  in  all  the  exercises  in  this  book,  I  never  saw  the  slightest  evidence  of  any 
attempt  at  the  combination  indicated  in  the  title. 

•'Another  general  defect  is  the  want  of  profitable  employment  for  the  childrent 
especially  in  the  lowest  classes.  Go  into  any  of  these  schools  any  time  of 
day,  and  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  if  not  forty-nine  out  of  fifty,  three-fourths  of 
the  pupils  will  be  found  without  profitable  employment.  Thus  the  time  of 
these  children  is  wasted  for  precious  months  and  years  in  succession.  But 
this  great  waste  of  time  is  not  the  only  evil  arising  from  this  defect.  Many 
bad  habits  are  formed.  The  strength  of  the  teacher,  which  should  be  ex- 
pended in  teaching,  is  necessarily  taxed  to  a  great  extent  by  the  incessant 
vigilance  and  care  requisite  to  keep  these  idlers  out  of  mischief,  and  to  secure 
some  reasonable  degree  of  stillness." 

THE    DISTRICT   SCHOOL   AND   OTHER    MEANS    OF    EDUCATION. 

If  the  Boston  schools,  which  enjoyed  every  advantage  of  the 
times,  were  in  the  condition  indicated  in  the  foregoing  testimony, 
what  shall  we  infer  in  regard  to  the  schools  of  the  smaller  towns 
and  in  the  rural  districts,  which  were  in  session  only  a  few  weeks 
each  year.  There  is  no  lack  of  evidence  to  show  that  the  natural 
inference  is  the  correct  one,  namely,  that  they  were  sadly  deficient 
in  every  important  particular.  Speaking  of  the  Condition  of 
the  schools  as  they  were  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  SALEM 
TOWN,  \vhoseopportunitiesforobservation  were  unequaled,  and 
whose  reliability  is  beyond  question,  says  : 

"  The  time  during  which  the  schools  were  taught  in  the  rural  districts — and 
such  were  most  of  them  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution — was  from  eight  to 
twelve  weeks,  and  that  in  the  winter  season.  In  the  summer  there  were  few  if 
any  schools,  as  all  who  could  hoe  a  hill  of  corn  or  do  housework  were  required 
to  labor.  At  this  early  period  the  attainments  of  those  who  had  no  further 
instruction  than  was  received  in  the  district  school  were  limited  to  very  few 
branches,  the  reason*  for  which  are  quite  obvious,  namely:  the  inability  of  the 
teachers  on  the  one  part,  and  the  limited  time  of  attendance  allowed  by  the 
parents  on  the  other.  Spelling.  Reading,  Writing,  and  Arithmetic  as  far  as 
the  Rule  of  Three  with  Simple  Interest,  were  the  main  branches.  It  was 
however  thought  by  many  parents  unnecessary  to  have  their  daughters  taught 
t  in  arithmetic,  as  in  their  view  it  would  be  of  little  or  no  use  to  them.  Frac- 
tions were  out  of  the  question."  * 

To  cipher  through  the  Rule  of  Three,  exclusive  of  Fractions, 
at  fourteen  years  of  age,  was  considered  quite  an  achievement. 

*  Barnard's  Journal  of  Education,  Vol.  XIII.,  p.  739. 


46  OUR   COMMON   SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

As  limited  as  was  the  course  in  arithmetic,  we  are  told  by  Mr. 
BURTON  that  it  was  taught  without  so  much  as  an  attempt  at  the 
explanation  of  rules  and  principles.  The  "  carrying  of  tens  "  in 
addition,  and  "borrowing"  in  subtraction,  were  "unaccountable 
operations."  * 

The  Rev.  HEMAN  HUMPHREY,  for  twenty  years  President  of 
Amherst  College,  and  for  many  years  a  teacher  in  the  schools  of 
Connecticut,  his  native  State,  writing  of  the  schools  as  they  were 
about  the  year  1 800,  says  : 

"  The  branches  taught  were  reading,  spelling  and  writing,  besides  the  A  B 
C's  to  children  scarcely  four  years  old.  *  *  *  Our  school  books  were  the  Bible, 
Spelling  Book,  and  Webster's  Third  Part  mainly.  One  or  two  others  were 
found  in  some  schools  for  the  reading  classes.  Grammar  was  hardly  taught 
at  all  in  any  of  them,  and  that  little  was  confined  to  committing  and  reciting 
the  rules.  Parsing  was  one  of  the  occult  sciences  in  my  day.  We  had  some 
few  lessons  in  geography  by  questions  and  answers,  bnt  no  maps,  no  globes; 
and  as  for  black-boards,  such  a  thing  was  never  thought  of  till  long  years  after. 
Children's  reading  and  picture  books  we  had  rone.  *  *  Arithmetic  was 
hardly  taught  at  all  in  the  day-schools.  As  a  substitute,  there  were  some 
evening  schools  in  most  of  the  districts.  *  *  *  The  winter  schools  were  com- 
monly kept  about  three  months,  in  some  favored  districts  four,  but  rarely  so 
long.  As  none  of  what  are  now  called  the  higher  branches  were  taught 
beyond  the  ^erest  elements,  parents  generally  thought  that  three  or  four 
months  were  enough.  *  *  *  With  regard  to  the  summer  schools  of  that  period 
I  have  very  little  to  say.  They  were  taught  by  females  upon  very  low  wages, 
about  as  much  a  week  as  they  could  earn  in  families  by  spinning  or  weaving. 
*  As  we  had  no  grammar  schools  in  which  the  languages  were  taught,  we 
most  of  us  fitted  for  college  with  our  ministers,  who,  thi.ugh  not  very  fresh 
from  their  classics,  did  what  they  could  to  help  us. "  t 

In  many  schools  it  was  the  custom  to  read  four  times  a  day, 
and  each  child  expected  to  read  each  time.  In  reference  to  this 
matter,  a  prominent  authority  on  this  subject  says : 

"  Had  they  read  but  once  or  twice,  and  but  little  at  a  time,  and  that  with 
nice  and  very  profitable  attention  to  tone  and  sense,  parents  would  have 
thought  the  master  most  miserably  deficient  in  his  duty,  and  their  children 
cheated  out  of  their  rights,  notwithstanding  the  time  thus  saved  should  be 
most  assiduously  devoted  to  other  important  branches  of  education. 

"  It  ought  not  to  be  omitted  that  the  Bible,  particularly  the  New  Testament, 
was  the  reading  twice  a  day  generally  for  all  the  classes  adequate  to  words  of 


•»The  District  School  as  it  Was,  by  "One  who  went  to  it,"  (Rev.  WARREN  BURTON,) 
Boston,  1833,  p.  114. 

f  Barnard's  American  Journal  of  Education,  Vol.  XIII.,  pp.   127,  128. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  47 

more  than  one  syllable.  It  was  the  only  reading  of  several  of  the  younger 
classes  under  some  teachers.  On  this  practice  I  shall  make  but  a  single 
remark:  as  far  as  my  own  experience  and  observation  extend,  reverence  for  the 
sacred  volume  was  not  deepened  by  this  constant  and  exceedingly  careless 
use."  * 

The  same  writer  says  the  principal  requirement  in  reading  was 
to  "speak  up  loud  and  mind  the  stops."  "As  for  suiting  the  tone 
to  the  meaning,  no  such  thing  was  dreamed  of,  in  our  school  at 
least.  As  much  emphasis  was  laid  on  an  insignificant  of  or  and, 
as  on  the  most  important  word  in  the  piece."  In  regard  to 
spelling,  we  are  informed  that  though  the  pupils  were  found  to  be 
able  to  spell  all  the  "  monstrous  great  words"  of  the  long  spelling 
columns,  they  could  not  "  spell  the  names  of  the  most  familiar 
things."!  This  is  the  kind  of  spelling  that  was  taught  in  the 
schools  of  that  day, — the  spelling  ®f  which  we  hear  so  many 
boasts. 

SAMUEL  G.  GOODRICH,  in  his  "Recollections  of  a  Lifetime," 
gives  even  more  positive  evidence  to  the  same  effect  in  regard  to 
every  point  here  touched  upon. 

Notwithstanding  many  faults  incident  to  the  times,  there  were 
some  good  schools  in  the  past.  The  Phillips  Academy  was  such, 
and  perhaps  a  few  others  ;  but  that  the  common  schools  were  far 
below  the  schools  of  the  present,  is  clearly  implied  in  many  ways. 
The  pupil  who  made  the  utmost  out  of  the  opportunities  afforded 
in  the  meager  course  of  study  provided,  received  an  education 
which  was  little  short  of  a  burlesque  compared  with  what  may  be 
received  at  present  in  almost  any  city  or  town  of  the  North.  The 
superiority  of  the  schools  of  the  present  is  clearly  implied  in  the 
expression  so  often  met  with  in  biographical  sketches,  that  "  the 
early  education  which  he  received  was  such  as  the  times  afforded." 

Go  into  any  public  library,  as  I  have  done  into  the  library  of 
this  city.  Take  down  one  biography  after  another  and,  unless  the 
subject  happens  to  be  of  exceptionally  cultured  parentage  or  large 
wealth,  if  his  education  be  spoken  of  at  all,  you  will,  four  times 
out  of  five,  find  a  record  such  as  would  put  to  blush  those  who 
assure  us  that  the  schools  of  the  past  were  superior  to  those  of 


•iict  School  as  it  Was,   Boston,   1833,  pp.   521055. 
t  District  School  as  it  Was,  p.   146. 


48  OUR   COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

to-day ;  that  is,  if  they  know  anything  of  the  schools  of  the  present, 
as  in  most  cases  we  suspect  they  do  not.  Some  of  these  will 
show  that  the  college  did  the  work  in  some  departments  now 
required  in  our  lower  grammar  and  even  primary  grades.  Jn 
Tyler's  Life  of  ROGER  B.  TANKY  (born  1777),  we  find  a  sketch  from 
which  we  may  infer  the  condition  of  the  schools  in  all  that  section 
of  the  country  from  which  Dickinson  College  gathered  its  patron- 
age. It  is  stated  that  all  students  in  the  college  were  required  to 
purchase  a  small  "  Rhyming  Geography,"  which  had  been  written 
by  the  vice  Principal  and  Lecturer  on  History,  Natural  Philoso- 
phy and  Geography,  and  that  the  contents  of  the  little  book  had 
to  be  committed  to  memory.  The  book  contained  about  fnty 
pages,  printed  in  octavo,  and  was  an  enumeration  of  the  countries 
and  nations  of  the  world,  and  the  principal  rivers,  mountains  and 
cities  in  each  of  them. 

*  *  *  "It  filled  our  minds  with  names  of  places  and  descriptions,  without 
giving  us  any  definite  idea  of  their  position  <>n  the  glolx-  <n  llx-ir  relation  to 
one  another;  and  as  may  be  supposed,  some  of  the  lines  and  rhymes  were 
harsh  and  uncouth  enough  to  be  the  subject  of  ridicule." 

I  cannot  refrain  from  asking  how  the  above  work  in  geography- 
required  by  a  Vice  President  of  Dickinson  College,  compares  with 
the  "  one-bean-and-two-beans-make-three  beans  "  exercise  in  our 
schools  for  the  very  youngest  children  just  beginning  to  read,  to 
which  Dr.  PKABODY  refers  in  the  passage  quoted  by  Mr.  II  IN-.. 
DALE.  But  the  above  work  in  Geography  was  a  part  of  Mr. 
TANEY'S  college  course.  It  is  now — excepting  the  rhyme — the 
work  of  our  primary  schools. 

In  the  memoirs  of  Dr.  ELIPHALET  NOTT,  for  sixty  years  the 
President  of  Union  College,  we  find  the  following,  in  reference  to 
the  schools  as  they  were  in  his  youth  and  early  manhood.  He 
was  born  in  1773.  ^  ne  schools  of  Connecticut,  his  native  State, 
are  here  spoken  of : 

"  The  country  school  of  that  day,  in  many  districts  at  least,  was  a 
unpinmising  institution.  The  teacher  was  not  (infrequently  a  person  of  barely 
education  enough  to  satisfy  the  critical  requirements  of  some  illiterate  com- 
mittee-man to  whom  was  delegated  the  office  of  Examiner,  llr-  had  perhaps 
left  the  shoe-bench,  the  anvil  or  the  plow  to  try  his  hand  for  a  few  weeks  at 
this  easier  work — to  return  at  the  close  of  his  brief  engagement  to  his  more 
fitting  business.  'I  he  emolument  could  haroly  have  tempted  him  to  turn 


PAST    AND    PRESENT.  49 

teacher,  for  the  pay  was  only  from  three  to  five  dollars  a  month,  and  two  months 
during  the  winter  season  was  the  usual  term  that  the  schools  remained  open. 
:  he  teacher's  office,  therefore  was  not  at  that  time  a  very  inviting  one,  nor  did 
the  school  he  presided  over  hold  out  any  strong'inducements  to  parents  who 
desired  most  of  all  to  have  their  children  well  taught. " 

LYMAN  BEECHER,  in  his  Autobiograpy,  says  of  his  early  edu- 
cation : 

"  I  went  in  arithmetic  through  the  Rule  of  Three,  but  nobody  ever  ex- 
plained anything — we  only  did  sums." 

After  his  sixteenth  year,  Mr.  BEECHER  came  under  the  instruc- 
tion of  Parson  BRAY,  who  fitted  boys  for  college.  Of  the  instruc- 
tion which  he  received  in  arithmetic,  he  says :  "  He  gave  us  sums 
to  do  in  arithmetic,  but  never  explained.  I  suffered  in  that 
department  from  his  neglect."  And  again  :  "  In  my  sophomore 
year  I  did  comparatively  little.  My  early  instructors  had  never 
explained  the  principles  of  arithmetic  so  that  for  this  part  of  the 
course  I  had  smalt  qualification.  Mathematics  I  lost  totally." 

The  lives  of  Judge  TANEY  and  Drs.  NOTT  and  BEECHER  were 
all  that  I  could  consult  in  the  hour  or  two  which  I  had  snatched 
from  more  important  duties.  I  found  no  testimony  to  conflict 
with  that  of  the  eminent  men  whom  I  have  named. 

We  have  quoted  incontrovertible  evidence  to  the  effect  that  the 
common  schools  of  New  England,  with  few  exceptions,  were  open 
from  two  to  four  months  only  in  the  year,  and  yet  Dr.  PEABODY  is 
quoted  as  saying  that  their  vacations  were  hardly  a  week  in  the 
year,  (HINSDALE,  p.  19.)  The  "all-system"  schools,  or  graded 
schools,  to  call  them  by  their  proper  name,  now  continue  from 
nine  to  ten  months  in  the  year,  and  yet  Dr.  PEABODY  says  "  the 
amount  of  time  and  energy  devoted  to  it  by  those  under  instruction 
is  very  much  less  than  it  used  to  be."  Does  Dr.  PEABODY  know 
what  the  schools  of  the  day  are  ?  Dees  he  know  that  the  classifi- 
cation, which  he  views  with  so  much  horror,  is  simply  a  "  plan '' 
by  which  children  are  grouped  in  classes  each  "  according  to  his  or 
her  proficiency,"  which  he  so  greatly  admires  in  the  schools  of  the 
past?  He  says  "  more  and  better  work  was  done  then  than  now." 
How  more  in  one-third  the  time,  and  with  attention  given  only 
to  reading,  writing,  spelling,  and  arithmetic  to  the  Rule  of  Three, 
fractions  being  beyond  the  question  ?  How  better,  when,  as  we 
have  seen  by  competent  testimony,  the  principles  of  arithmetic, 


50  OUR    COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

were,  so  far  as  we  can  learn,  never  taught  ;  when  two  or  three 
years  were  devoted  to  the  definitions  and  rules  of  grammar  with- 
out application  to  either  analysis  or  composition  ;  when  geography 
received  comparatively  little  or  no  attention  ?  Win-re  in  all  New 
Kngland  were  the  common  schools  in  any  large  numbers  in  session 
during  the  entire  year,  with  only  a  few  wteks'  vacation?  Private 
schools  or  small  classes  may  have  been  thus  taught  by  some  retired 
clergyman  who  fitted  boys  for  college.  There  may  have  been 
some  larger  schools  in  the  Dummer  or  Phillips  Academies  which 
had  a  continuous  session  through  the  year,  but  they  were  remarka- 
ble as  exceptions  to  the  rule. 

We  have  thus  far  glanced  at  the  history  of  common  schools  in 
the  two  leading  States  of  New  England  down  to  1836.  We  have 
seen  how  the  "cuttings  from  the  New  England  tree  were  planted, 
and  how  they  grew  in  the  Middle  Atlantic  and  in  the  older  and 
more  prosperous  of  the  Western  States. 

We  have  also  submitted  the  testimony  of  school  examiners  and 
other  school  officers,  of  legislators  and  men  of  exceptional  culture 
and  opportunity  for  observation,  to  show  what  the  condition  of 
popular  education  was  from  1836  to  about  the  time  of  the  breaking 
out  of  the  civil  war,  a  time  which  lies  within  the  memory  of  the 
youngest  members  of  this  association. 

And  finally,  we  have  had  an  interior  view  of  the  school-rooms, 
and  we  have  seen  the  schoolmaster  of  one,  two  or  three  genera 
tions  ago  at  work,  and  we  have  seen  how  he  and  his  pupils  did  so 
"  much  more  and  better  work  than  is  now  done ;"  and  this  testi- 
mony we  have  had  from  the  very  men  who  suffered  the  disadvan- 
tages of  those  days. 

The  information  we  have  gathered  shows  conclusively : 

i  That  Mr.  HINSDALE'S  studies  of  the  history  and  progress 
of  the  common  school  system  are  entirely  at  fault,  and  that  his 
"rapid  sketch"  is  the  creation  of  fancy  rather  than  fact.* 

2.  That  the  present  free  public  school  system  of  the  country  is 
almost  the  creation  of  men,  some  of  whom  are  still  living  and 
active  in  the  work  which  they  began  in  the   full  maturity  of  their 
powers. 

3.  That,  as  a  consequence,  the  system  cannot  be  saddled  with 
the  responsibility  which  might  justly  be   laid  upon  an  institution 
t« /muled  more  than  two  centuries  ago,  and  fostered  by  the  liberality 
of  generations. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  51 

4.  That   it  is  only  here  and  there  that  the  more  enterprising 
centeis  of  wealth  and  intelligence  have  received  the  advantages  of 
the  regenerated  public-school  system,  just  as  the  highest  mountain 
peaks  are  first  gilded  by  the  light  of  the  morning  sun. 

5.  That   the    surprising  increase  of  expenditures  which  Presi- 
dent   HINSDAI.E  parades    on  page  nine  is  a   practical  result  of 
the  almost  fatal  lesson  which  was  taught  us  by  the  civil  war,  that 
the  common  school  is  the  only  guarantee  of  political  or  personal 
freedom. 

This  review  of  the  history  of  our  common  school  education 
till  within  so  late  a  period,  will  serve  also  to  show  how  utterly 
baseless  are  the  deductions  which  are  made  by  Mr.  HINSDALE 
from  the  West  Point  examinations,  for  when  the  products  of  the 
schools,  at  their  lowest  point  of  degradation,  were  offering  them- 
selves for  admission  to  West  Point,  the  results  of  examinations 
seem  to  have  beeh  best.  But  we  propose  a  different  treatment  of 
the 

WEST    POINT    ARGUMENT. 

After  casting  about  for  a  standard  of  measurement  whereby  the 
results  of  the  education  to-day  may  be  compared  with  that  of 
former  generations,  especially  of  forty  or  fifty  years  ago,  President 
HINSDALE  remarks  : 

"Perhaps  the  best  standard  that  occurs  is  the  West  Point  examinations, 
particularly  the  examinations  of  candidates  for  admission  to  the  Academy. 
Here  is  a  large  number  of  candidates  each  year;  they  come  from  all  parts 
of  the  Union;  they  are  of  about  the  same  age,  they  are  examined  by 
experienced  teachers,  generally  holding  their  places  during  good  behavior. 
Fortunately  a  record  of  these  examinations  has  been  kept  for  nearly  forty 
The  re>u!ts  have  been  tabulated  and  published.  All  educators  and 
especially  common  school  teachers  should  be  interested  in  the  verdict  that 
West  Point  has  given  of  our  common  schools." 

Reference  is  then  made  to  the  Report  of  the  Board  of  Visitors 
of  1875,  in  which  the  very  suggestive  fact  is  pointed  out  "that  in 
the  last  five  years  the  average  number  of  rejected  candidates  has 
been  six  per  cent,  for  physical  disability,  and  forty  per  cent,  for 
deficiency  in  the  scholastic  requirements."  Then  a  point  is  made 
that  "in  the  six  New  England  States,  where  educational  facilities 
are  open  to  all,  the  rejections  have  been  thirty-five  per  cent,  of  the 
number  examined  from  that  section."  Then  comes  the  deduc- 
tion :  "From  tliese  statistics,  it  is  clearly  evident  that  in  the  schools  of 
the  country  there  is  need  of  more  thorough  methods  of  instruction  in 
the  elementary  branches."  This  is  from  the  Board  of  Visitors,  and 


OUR    COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 


by  way  of  endorsement,  they  insert  a  memorandum  from  Prof. 
CHURCH,  which  concludes  with  this  sentence :  "  I  think  our  can- 
didates are  not  as  thoroughly  prepared  as  they  were  twenty  years 
ago."  President  HINSDALE,  with  some  triumph,  asks  : 

••  \ci\v  what  have  our  public  school  teachers  to  say  to  this?  What  do  they 
propose  to  do  with  an  old  West  Point  examiner  who  charges  some  'serious 
defect  in  their  methods  of  teaching  the  elementary  branches,  particularly 
arithmetic,  reading  and  spelling?'"  *  *  *  "Hut  the  West  Point  authorities 
furnish  the  evidence  on  which  they  base  their  indictment  of  the  public  schools. 
Part  of  it  is  found  in  the  following:" 

STATEMENT. 

Showing  the  Number  of  Candida  let  for  Cadelship*  appointed  to  the  L'nitt-d  States  Military 

Academy,  the  Number  Rejected,  and  the  Number  Admitted, 

FKOM  1838  TO  1876,  INCLUSIVE. 


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'7 

18 

15    20               95 

1873..      230      74        5      28      28      30      50      49 

29    13              118 

1874..       17^      <V>        4 

46      36 

89 

'875.  - 

68 

3« 

24 

27 

3° 

121 

1876..       167 

53 

4 

22 

23 

«7 

1 

98 

PAST   AND    PRESENT.  53 

It  is  asked,  what  answer  we  have  to  make  to  this  indictment? 
I  Confess  that  I  am  at  a  loss  what  to  say,  or  rather  what  to  say 
first.  Nevertheless,  let  us  begin  by  inquiring  who  these  examinees 
are. 

First.  We  find  that  each  Congressional  and  Territorial  District 
and  the  District  of  Columbia  is,  at  any  one  time,  entitled  to  one 
cadet  at  the  Military  Academy,  and  no  more.  Appointments  at 
large,  not  to  exceed  ten,  are  also  made  annually. 

Second.  The  district  appointments  are  made  on  nomination  of 
the  member  of  Congress  representing  the  district  at  the  date  of 
the  appointment.  The  appointments  at  large  are  made  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States. 

Third.  The  law  requires  that  the  appointee  shall  be  a  resident 
of  the  district  from  which  he  is  appointed ;  and 

Fourth.  That  h,e  shall  be  from  seventeen  to  twenty-two  years 
of  age. 

Having  been  appointed,  and  being  qualified  as  to  age  and 
residence,  he  can  go  to  West  Point  for  examination.  If  he  pass 
the  Academic  and  Medical  Boards,  he  is  admitted  ;  if  he  fail,  his 
failure  is  entered  against  the  public  schools,*  and  he  is  sent  home 
again. 

The  fact  that  he  made  the  attempt  may  be  known  only  to  him- 
self and  the  member  who  appointed  him  ;  his  absence  from  home 
can  be  attributed  to  a  visit  to  New  York;  the  whole  matter  escapes 
public  notice,  and  no  one  will  be  held  responsible  for  the  failure 
but — the  public  schools.  His  name  may  never  have  been  en- 
tered upon  the  rolls  of  a  public  school ;  t  or  if  it  has,  he  may 


*  That  is,  by  those  who  take  only  a  superficial  view  of  the  matter. 

t  If  from  a  southern  State,  the  chances  are  ten  to  one  against  it.  See  preceding  state- 
ments as  to  the  condition  of  the  public  schools  in  the  South.  If  from  a  northern  State,  the 
chances  are  about  one  out  of  five  that  he  never  attended  the  public  schools  for  any  great 
length  of  time.  It  is  a  very  common  thing  to  send  boys  who  do  not  succeed  in  the  public  schools 
from  one  private  school  to  another  where  the  little  chance  they  might  have  for  an  education 
is  lost  by  frequent  change.  Every  year  we  hear  of  some  of  the  most  worthless  pupils  of  the 
public  schools  going  to  some  so-called  colleges  where  they  are  admitted  to  higher  studies  to' 
gratify  the  ambition  ot  foolish  parents  and  to  secure  patronage  without  which  the  "  college  ' 
would  go  down.  It  is  moie  than  probable  that  those  who  are  referred  to  by  President 
CHURCH  as  giving  long  lists  of  collegiate  studies,  the  "names  of  which  are  often  misspelled," 
come  from  this  very  class.  Whose  fault  is  it  that  they  escaped  the  common  school  and  were 
ailini/trit  in  "college  "  before  they  had  learned  to  spell  at  least  tolerably  or  learned  the  "ele- 
ments of  arithmetic  and  grammar?" 


54  OUR   COMMON    M  HOOL    EDUCATION. 

have  been  withdrawn  before  he  even  commenced  some,  at  least, 
of  the  studies  required  for  admission,  or  he  may  have  been*  so 
inv-ular  in  attendance,  or  so  idle  and  indifferent,  or  so  wanting 
in  brains,  as  never  to  have  made  any  real  progress— it  matters 
not  to  our  Professor  at  West  Point-  his  failure  is  set  down  to 
serious  defects  in  our  common-school  instruction,*  especially  in 
the  elementary  branches. 

Now,  is  it  possible  that  this  vicious  system  of  appointment  has 
escaped  the  notice  of  Prof.  CHURCH,  Gen.  SHKKMAN  and  Presi- 
dent HINSDALE?  Have  they  not  learned  that  the  results  of  such 
a  system  of  patronage  have  been  uniformly  the  same  in  evuv 
country  in  which  anything  like  it  has  been  attempted,  and  that  its 
defects  have  caused  it  to  be  abandoned  in  almost  every  other 
country  than  our  own1? 

If  these  gentlemen  have  not  heard  the  voice  of  successive  Boards 
of  Visitors,  or  of  the  First  Superintendent  of  the  Academy  on  this 
subject,  it  is  because  they  have  willfully  oiosed  their  ears  against 
it.  Col.  THAYER,  Superintendent  of  the  Academy  from  1816  to 
1^,1 1,  to  whom  the  Academy  is  greatly  indebted  for  the  efficiency 
of  its  present  organization,  protested  against  it  repeatedly  during 
his  time  of  service  and  afterward.  In  the  Report  of  the  Hoard  of 
Visitors  for  1X63,  allusion  is  boldly  made  to  the  favoritism  which 
procured  appointments  for  those  who  were  found  to  be  physically 
disqualified,  as  well  as  mentally  incompetent 

Mm  having  seen  how  irresponsible  those  are  who  make  thi  ap 
pointments,  that  the  appointments  may  be  made  indifferently 
from  all  classes  of  schools,  and  in  fact  without  regard  to  previous 
school  attendance,  etc.,  let  us  turn  to  the  question, 

HAVE    THE    ACAHKMIC    EXAMINATIONS    HI-1'N    UNIFORM* 

Pi  of.  Curia  H  writes  to  Mr.  HINSDALE  as  follows: 

i    think   we    have  rai.-i'tl  our  stanclaul   of  i«|inrcnient    in   any  one 

•  li.     As  far  as  possible  we  have  endeavored  i»  l.n  ]>  tin*  tin-  -.un<  him 

year    to    year,   though    \ve    have    lately   l>crn  inoie  strict    in   our    |iielimmaiy 


*We  do  not  say  that  hoys  who  were  totally  inriniijirtrni  up  with  the 

•  HI>  nt  of  j.iiMii  >.<  h»oi  t<-.«  laim  no  more  I 

V   the  judiciary,  not   :i    few  of  whom  havr  st.niu.-d    the   ermine   by 
li  iiiom-v  in  hand  for  Riven  decisions;  HIT  more  than 

men,   many  of  whom  hav.  ,  ir  holy  calling.      But   we  do   claim  that  exci -, 

•ilil  not  >>e  >ct  down  as  the  general  rule. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  55 

examinations,    and    thus  perhaps  discover  more  deficiences  than  we  would 
under  a  less  vigorous  system. " 

What  this  may  mean  is  not  very  clear.  "  The  standard  of 
requirement  in  no  one  branch  has  been  raised,  though  we  have 
lately  been  more  strict  in  our  examinations."  "  Preliminary,"  oi' 
course,  for  that's  what  we  are  talking  of.  What  is  greater  strictness 
exercistd  for,  but  to  "  discover  more  deficiencies,"  to  exact  more 
thorough  knowledge  of  principles,  and  greater  accuracy  in  apply- 
ing them?  Why  the  uncertainty  of  the  "perhaps,"  as  if  greater 
strictness  wras  not  certain  to  exclude  candidates  who  would  be 
admitted  "under  a  less  vigorous  system1?"  How  delicate  of  the 
marksman  who  would  say :  "  I  take  my  station  nearer  the  target  • 
my  nerve  is  steadier,  my  aim  is  more  accurate,  and  perhaps  that  is 
the  reason  I  hit  the  bull's  eye  oftener  than  I  used  to  do." 

Prof.  MICHIE  states  t  he  case  more  plainly  when  he  says  : 

• 

"Since  1870  the  examinations  have  been  written  and  the  character  of  the 
examinations  much  more  severe,  although  the  scope  is  the  same." 

This  we  can  comprehend,  and  those  of  us  who  know  what 
written  examinations  mean,  understand  why  it  is  that  so  many 
more  fail  than  formerly.  That  the  examinations  are  more  severe, 
though  the  principal,  is  not  the  only  reason.  Another  one  quite 
as  effective  is,  that  the  examinations  are  in  writing.  One-half  of 
the  candidates  perhaps  have  never  attempted  to  make  up  a  manu- 
script on  any  subject  till  they  come  to  West  Point  for  examina- 
tion. Few  of  us  are  aware  how  very  little  of  such  work  is  done 
in  the  "no-system"  school  of  the  country,  even  at  the  present 
time.  The  most  of  us  witnessed  the  effect  when  written  examin- 
ations were  first  introduced  into  graded  schools. 

As  we  have  seen,  Prof.  CHURCH  gives  his  testimony  with  a  kind 
of  delicate  apprehensiveness,  lest  we  should  think  the  examina- 
tions had  become  too  severe.  Prof.  MICHIE  gives  his  as  a  state- 
ment of  fact,  without  any  concern  as  to  its  effect,  but  both  make 
their  statements  with  proper  official  caution.  They  speak  of  the 
institution  with  which  their  own  reputation  is  closely  associated. 
But  members  of  the  Board  of  Visitors  speak  with  less  reserve 
when  they  say,  as  I  heard  a  very  prominent  educator*  say  not 


*  Hon.  B.  G.  NOKTHKOI-,  Secretary  of  the  State  Board  of  Education,  Connecticut,  author 
of  ''Education  Abroad,"  "Education  in  Japan,"  etc. 


56  OUR   COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

long  ago,  in  a  Convention  of  School  Superintendents  :  "  There  is 
no  comparison  as  to  severity  between  their  examinations  to-day 
and  those  of  twenty  years  ago."  The  graduates  of  the  Academy, 
however,  put  it  still  more  effectively  when  they  characterized  the 
examination  of  a  few  years  ago  at  West  Point  as  a  farce,  the 
broadness  of  which  at  any  given  time  depended  on  how  many 
students  were  wanted  to  fill  up  the  institution.  But  if  further 
evidence  were  wanting,  there  is  abundant  evidence  of  a  variable 
standard  in  the  table  itself. 

INTERNAL    EVIDENCE    OF    A    VARIABLE    STANDARD. 

In  1859  the  number  of  rejections  for  poor  writing  and  bad 
spelling  was  more  than  one  in  four  of  all  examined  ;  two  years 
thereafter,  about  one  in  thirty-five.  In  1869,  eight  percent,  failed 
in  arithmetic  ;  the  very  next  year,  sixteen  per  cent.  In  1870,  for 
deficiencies  in  grammar,  over  thirty-three  per  cent,  were  rejected  ; 
two  years  after,  ten  per  cent.  In  1870,  fifteen  out  of  one  hundred 
and  sixty-three  were  rejected  for  poor  reading;  in  1872,  out  of 
one  hundred  and  sixty-five,  none  !  I  have  selected  a  few  only  of 
the  more  striking  cases.  The  reader  will  find  the  table  full  of 
them.  If  the  candidates  of  one  year  came  from  one  section,  and 
those  of  another  year  came  from  another  section,  we  could  inter- 
pret the  result  by  some  other  theory  than  that  the  examinations 
are  variable  ;  but  as  it  is,  there  can  be  no  other  conclusion  than 
that  Mr.  HINSDALE'S  best  standard  has  been  very  elastic. 

But  it  may  be  objected  that  these  are  merely  accidental  varia 
tions.     Take  then  periods  of  five  years  each : 

From  1850  to  1855  the  rejections  were  5  per  cent,  of  the  examined. 
"     1855  to  1860  "  25  " 

"     1860  to  1865  "  12  " 

11     1865  to  1870  "  24 

"     1870101875  "  38  " 

"     1875  &  1876  "  36 

Who  is  there  so  credulous  that  he  could  be  convinced  by  this 
or  indeed  any  amount  of  testimony  that  the  average  scholarship 
of  young  men  of  the  nation  was  so  much  better  from  1850  to 
1855  than  it  was  the  five  years  following;  or,  if  it  had  fallen 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  57 

away  so  greatly,  who  would  believe  that  it  improved  one  hundi  <1 
jiL-r  cent,  in  the  next  five  years,  only  to  decline  again  in  a  like 
period  to  its  former  condition  ? 

If  the  examiners  had  constituted  successive  classes  in  any  one 
institution  under  teachers  changing  every  five  years,  this  great 
difference  would  be  something  rather  remarkable,  but  that  the 
average  scholastic  attainments  of  a  whole  people  could  so  change 
eclipses  our  conception  of  possibility. 

See  what  remarkable  pranks  this  wonderfully  magic  measure 
plays  with  the  New  England  States.  The  Board  of  Visitors  of 
1875  direct  attention  to  the  fact  that, 

"  In  the  six  New  England  States,  where  educational  facilities  are  open  to 
all,  the  rejection  has  been  35  per  cent,  of  the  number  examined  from  that 
section." 

• 

This  statement  comprises  one  paragraph ;  the  next,  which  is 
equally  brief,  contains  this  deduction  : 

"  From  these  statistics  it  is  clearly  evident  that  in  the  schools  of  the  country 
there  is  need  of  more  thorough  methods  of  instruction  in  the  elementary 
branches." 

Before  we  refer  to  the  table  from  which  the  Visitors  derive 
these  statements,  we  may  remark  that  the  latter  paragraph  would 
sound  quite  as  well  and  seem  far  more  reasonable  if  it  read  thus  : 

From  these  statistics,  it  is  clearly  evident  that  many  young  men 
are  appointed  who  have  not  completed  the  course  of  an  ordinary 
district  school.  Or,  they  might  have  put  it  thus  :  From  these  sta- 
tistics, it  is  evident  that  many  young  men  are  sent  up  for  examin- 
ation from  the  so-called  colleges  and  academies,  who  have  not 
native  ability  or  industry  enough  to  master  the  studies  of  the 
common  schools. 

But  let  us  take  a  few  items  from  the  table  referred  to  (by  the 
Visitors),  and  arrange  them  so  that  we  can  take  in  at  a  glance 
some  startling  comparisons  between  the  last  five  and  the  pre- 
ceding thirty-two  years. 


58  OUR   COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

The  number  from  the  A'fii1  England  States  examined  and  rejected 
from  1838  to  1874  : 


THIRTY-TWO  YEARS. 

1838  to  1870. 

I  IVK  YEARS. 

1870  to  1874,  incl. 

EXAMINED. 

REJECTED. 

IX  \\IINED. 

REJECTED. 

55 
3» 
34 
94 

20 

45 

I 
2 
2 

o 
o 
3 

13 

5 

23 

r 

ii 

5 

I 
O 

7 

2 

5 

New  Hampshire    

Massachusetts    

Rhode  Island  

Connecticut      

Total     

279 

s 

60 

20 

Less  than  3  per  cent. 

33  1/3  Per  cent. 

Now,  what  is  the  probability  in  this  case1?  Is  it  that  the  New 
England  States  had  floated  on — an  educafed  people  educating 
their  children — for  thirty-three  years  losing  less  than  three  out  of 
the  hundred  examined,*  during  even  the  last  five  years  of  that 
period  feeling  no  apprehension  of  approaching  disaster,! — only 
to  plunge  at  once  into  such  an  abyss  of  ignorance1?  Or,  is  not 
rather  more  probable  that  the  examinations  of  the  last  five  years 
represented  in  the  table,  were  much  more  severe  than  they  had 
been  before  1  What  would  you  say,  Mr.  President,  even  though 
Prof.  MICHIE  and  others  had  not  said  they  were — taking  for 
granted  then  what  cannot  be  denied,  viz  :  that  the  examinations 
are  much  more  severe  than  they  used  to  be,  and  knowing,  as  you 
must,  that  appointments  are  often  made  with  reckless  disre- 
gard of  public  interest — were  you  not  able  to  account  for  the 
increased  ratio  of  failures,  without  suspecting  any  great  deteriora- 
tion in  the  teaching  of  reading  and  writing,  spelling  and  ciphering 
in  the  schools  of  New  England? 

But  strange  to  say,  we  find  a  parallel  to  this  wonderful  shuttle- 
cock, a  nation's  scholarship,  in  the  almost  as  wonderful  variation 


*  A  thing  in  itself  to  be  wondered  at  unless  the  candidates  had  been  chcs«n  with  otrtme 
caution. 

t  Only  two  had  been  rejected  frcro  all  New  England  from  1865  to  1870. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  59 

of  the  physical  condition  of  its  male  youth.  While  statistics  of 
health  show  that  chronic  ailments  maintain  a  nearly  constant 
average  throughout  the  United  States  from  year  to  year,  the 
statistics  of  West  Point  seem  to  indicate  the  most  astounding 
fluctuations. 

From  1860  to  1870,  out  of  i,o/4  appointments,  only  16  were 
rejected  by  the  Medical  Board ;  within  the  last  five  years  covered 
by  the  table,  52  were  rejected  out  of  864.*  Have  physical  in- 
hrmities  among  our  young  men  really  trebled  within  ten  years  ? 
If  they  have,  how  long  will  it  take  for  us  to  become  a  nation  of 
chronic  invalids  ?  What  will  become  of  the  boast  of  Americans, 
that  they  are  physically  superior  to  any  other  people  of  the  globe? 
What  becomes  of  medical  statistics,  showing  that  the  physical 
condition  of  the  civilized  races  is  improving  and  the  length  of 
life  increasing  1  But  our  alarm  is  changed  to  confidence  when 
we  turn  to  a  later  table,  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  "  Register  of 
the  Military  Academy  for  the  year  1876."  We  there  find  that  only 
one  in  fifty  was  rejected  by  the  Medical  Board  from  1874  to  1876, 
to  one  in  twelve  the  three  preceding  years. 

Now,  it  is  not  necessary  that  we  declare  such  opposite  results, 
either  of  scholarship  or  soundness  of  "wind  and  limb,"  to  be 
impossible.  Thaugh,  as  we  have  said,  we  believe  them  to  be  results 
of  varying  standards  of  measurement,  carelessness  of  appoint- 
ment may  go  far  to  explain  them  ;  but  it  does  not  matter  whether 
they  are  explained  or  not ;  all  that  is  necessary  for  us  to  know  is, 
that  they  do  not  indicate  the  intellectual  or  physical  status  of  the 
nation  at  one  time  as  compared  with  another. 

But  there  is  one  other  way  in  which  the  table  seems  to  dis- 
credit Prof.  CHURCH'S  declaration  that  the  standard  of  admission 
has  not  been  raised  as  well  as  the  other  statement  which  he  makes, 
that  "  while  the  proportion  rejected  has  increased,"  he  "  finds  as 
well  in  those  admitted  less  accuracy  in  definitions  and  rules,  less 
ability  to  give  clear  reasons,  and  less  facility  in  the  application  of 
the  principles  whenever  required  in  other  branches  of  their  mathe- 
matical course." 


*  Some  confusion  may  arise  from  the  fact  that  the  tabular  statement  on  page  52  includes 
the  statistic*  of  two  years  more  than  Mr.  HINSDALE'S  table. 


6o 


OUR    COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 


With  such  rapidly  growing  inferiority  of  the  material  how  is  it 
that  tlie  ratio  of  graduations  has  increased  more  than  tit  is  per 
cent,  within  thirty  or  forty  years?  The  following  table  certainly 
needs  explanation  in  the  light  of  Professor  CHURCH'S  declaration 
which  is  quoted  above. 

Table  shoeing  the  number  admitted,  and  the  number  and  per  cent.  <>J 
graduates  for  the  time  covered  by  the  table  given  by  President 
Jlinsdale,  which  is  to  be  found  on  page  52. 


«.K  AIM'AI  1  I) 

LRS. 

AH.M  1  1  1  KI). 

IDCR    YKAKS 

\l-  1  1   KU'AKI.S. 

38-43  

494 

191 

37 

43—4* 

393 

179 

46 

48-53 

420 

195      ,                                46 

420 

i'H                           45 

58-63 

395 

172                          43* 

371                         218 

-MS                                        S7 

There  is  yet  another  light  in  which  it  will  be  interest  ing  to  con- 
sider this  table.  It  is  assumed  to  be  a  "standard  ot  measure 
ment  "  whereby  the  value  of  the  common  education  of  one 
ation  may  be  compared  with  that  of  another  generation.  It  it  be 
accepted  for  this  purpose,  it  surely  may  be  taken  as  a  tit  standard 
for  the  comparison  of  one  State  with  another  at  the  same  time. 
In  applying  it  to  the  latter  use  that  which  we  have  discovered  to 
be  the  chief  source  of  error  is  eliminated,  viz  :  the  variation  of 
the  standard,  for  surely  we  may  rely  upon  the  Academic  Hoard  to 
-en  handed  justice  to  the  several  Stales  at  one  and  the  same 
sitting.  Let  us  then  compare  the  common  education  of  some 
of  the  States  as  ascertained  by  the  West  Point  standard,  with 
the  condition  of  education  in  the  same  States  as  ascertained  by 
the  census  of  1870. 


It  I  'it  this  falling  niT  111  - 

Mig  out  of  the  Civil  \V;ir. 


PAST   AND   PRESENT.  6 1 

The  following  table  shows  the  comparative  results  of  the  two 
modes  of  ascertaining  the  quality  of  our  common  education  : 


STATES. 

Number  out  of 
1,000  White  Males 
between  15  and  21, 
who  cannot  Write. 

Per  Cent.  Rejected 
at  West  Point  Ex- 
aminations, since 
1870. 

Florida  

}2<i 

0 

chusetts  

37 

32 

Ohio  

C  J 

34 

New  York  

JJ 

T.2 

37 

Virginia  .  . 

246 

37 

Maine  -  .  .  .  . 

71 

4° 

Pennsylvania  

4O 

42 

Maryland  

82 

43 

Connecticut  

42 

45 

The  above  tabular  statement  needs  no  comment.  The  great 
educational  metre  discovered  by  Professor  CHURCH,  so  far  from 
being  moved  by  varying  degrees  of  public  education  is  really  not 
affected  by  extremes  of  either  culture  or  ignorance.  Its  hands 
are  moved  over  the  dial  face  sometimes  with  wonderful  rapidity, 
but  they  are  not  moved  one  way  by  the  influence  of  good  schools 
and  contrariwise  by.the  presence  of  illiterate  youth.  The  power 
that  moves  them  is  amenable  to  no  law.  Each  successive  con- 
gressional representative  turns  the  pointer  this  way  or  that  as 
whim,  caprice  or  motive,  high  or  low  chances  to  rule  him  as  he 
passes  along  ;  then  the  examiner  calls  "six,"  nine  or  three  or  any- 
thing else  that  he  pleases,  and  the  record  which  he  makes  is  gravely 
urged  to  prove  "  the  inferiority  of  our  elementary  instruction." 

One  last  appeal  to  our  judges,  an  ar%umentum  ad  hominem,  and 
I  shall  leave  them  to  decide  the  case  as  they  please. 

Take  one  of  the  five  thousand  youths  of  a  congressional  district 
who  may  be  eligible  to  an  appointment,  take  him  pretty  much  at 
hap-hazard  without  regard  to  previous  school  attendance,  industry 
or  native  capacity,  would  you  judge  the  efficiency  of  the  teachers 
of  that  district  by  the  specimen  I  If  you  would,  O  ye  professors 
and  echoing  visitors  !  let  us  apply  the  measure  to  your  school — 
the  great  standard  of  American  military  science.  Let  good  men 
with  a  large  number  who  are  nut  so  good,  boon  companions, 
creditors,  debtors,  political  jobbers,  bribe-takers  or  bribe-givers, 


62  OUR   COMMON   SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

every  four  years  pick  out  those  whom  they  may  be  pleased  or 
whom  it  is  their  interest  to  call  representatives  of  the  Academy ; 
let  these  specimens  of  your  work  (?)  be  selected  from  among  those 
whom  you  have  discharged  for  incapacity  from  the  first  month  to 
the  beginning  of  the  fourthjyear  of  the  academic  course  ;  let  now 
and  then  one  be  taken  at  hap-hazard  or  by  selection  from  among 
your  graduates,  and  take  some,  perhaps  a  third,  who  have  never 
entered  the  Military  Academy,  and  let  them  all  be  placed  in  the 
hands  of  competent  examiners  to  pass  a  technical  examination  on 
your  entire  course — the  graduates,  good,  fair  and  indifferent, 
those  whom  you  have  "  plucked  "  from  stage  to  stage  and  even  the 
strangers  to  your  gate — with  what  justice  could  some  congressional 
committee  in  reporting  the  result,  make  such  complaint  as  the 
following : 

From  these  results  it  is  clearly  evident  that  notwithstanding  the 
large  sums  expended  for  its  support,  there  is  somewhere  a  serious 
defect  in  the  system  of  instruction  at  West  Aint,  especially  in  the 
simplest  elements  of  a  military  course,  Algebra,  Geometry,  etc. 

What  would  you  say  to  such  a  judgment  ?  Would  you  not  say 
that  it  was  a  somewhat  violent  exhibition  of  insanity  1  What  then 
shall  Massachusetts  educators  say  to  you  1  Might  they  not  say, 
"The  country  expects  of  men  in  the  high  position  which  you  hold 
that  they  should  ''think  before  they  speak.'  " 

SUMMARY    OF    THE    REASONS    WHY    THE   WEST    POINT    ARGUMENT 
SHOULD    BE    REJECTED. 

The  whole  matter  pertaining  to  these  examinations  at  West 
Point,  as  well  as  those  at  Annapolis,  may  be  summed  up  in  a  few 
sentences : 

i  st.  The  conditions  of  appointment  have  no  relation  to  the 
duration  or  regularity  of  previous  school  attendance,  application 
to  study,  or  native  capacity. 

2d.  The  table  shows  that  the  examinations  have  been  ex- 
tremely variable,  or  else  that  the  standard  of  education  throughout 
the  whole  country  has  risen  and  fallen  in  curves  more  fantastic 
than  the  fluctuations  of  the  stock  market.  That  which  requires 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  63 

a  half  century  to  effect  appreciably  in  the  general  average,  has 
become  the  variable  quantity,  and  that  which  can  be  raised  or 
depressed  at  will,  or  accidentally,  has  become  the  constant  and 
invariable. 

3d.  I  have  shown  that  these  examinations  do  not  indicate  even 
remotely  the  condition  of  the  common  education  of  the  people  in 
different  States  at  the  same  period,  and  in  consequence  that  they 
afford  no  standard  by  which  we  may  judge  the  efficiency  of  the 
schools  at  different  periods  in  the  same  State. 

In  our  discussion  on  this  point,  we  have  not  specially  alluded 
to  the  graded  schools,  the  so  called  "all-system  schools"  of 
to-day  as*they  are  found  in  the  larger  towns  and  cities.  To  one 
reading  Mr.  HINSDALE'S  paper  from  beginning  to  end,  particu- 
larly what  he  has  to  say  on  the  causes  of  the  "inferiority  of  our 
common  education,"  it  would  seem  that  the  blame  for-  so  many 
failures  at  West  Point  falls  on  them  almost  exclusively.  But 
the  fact  is,  that,  of  those  who  have  completed  the  course  of 
the  grammar  school  with  fair  success,  very  few  fail  at  these  exam- 
inations. 

My  own  testimony  may  be  worth  something  on  this  point,  and 
it  is  to  the  effect,  that  although  I  have  had  pretty  intimate 
acquaintance  with  the  schools  of  the  two  largest  cities  of  this 
State  for  twenty  years  past,  I  cannot  now  call  to  mind  even  one 
such  failure. 

Feeling  confident,  from  my  own  experience,  that  if  there  were 
any  deterioration  of  our  common-school  education,  it  could  not 
be  in  the  graded  or  "  all-system  schools,"  I  addressed  notes  of 
inquiry  to  several  of  the  prominent  educational  men  of  our  own 
State,  that  I  might  ascertain  what  proportion  of  failures  comes 
from  the  thoroughly  classified  schools  of  the  larger  towns  and 
cities.  1  obtained  replies  from  twenty  different  parties,  repre- 
senting as  many  different  localities.  These  parties  enumerate 
sixty-six  different  individuals  whom  they  know  to  have  made 
application  for  admission  to  the  military  and  naval  academies. 
Out  of  the  sixty-six,  only  six  failed  to  obtain  admission.  Of 
these  six,  two  in  one  city  stood  among  the  lowest  thirty  out 
of  the  hundred  eligible  candidates  in,  or  from  the  same 


64  OUR   COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

school.  They  were  the  sons  of  politicians,  low,  drinking  men, 
and  were  appointed  for  political  considerations.  In  another 
city,  two  failed,  one  a  truant  who  would  not  go  to  school  if 
he  could  help  it;  the  other  had  been  faithful,  but  lacked 
mental  capacity.  In  a  third  city,  one  failed  because  he  had  not 
completed  the  grammar-school  course.  Besides  the  five  above- 
accounted  for,  there  were  three  others  who  failed,  but  they  are 
not  included  in  the  sixty-six  candidates,  for  the  reason  that  it  is 
not  certainly  known  whether  they  came  from  graded  or  ungraded 
schools.  Thus  it  appears  that  the  failures  of  which  Prof.  CHURCH 
and  the  Board  of  Visitors  complain  do  not  come,  as  a  general 
thing,  from  the  graded  schools,  and  that  the  few  failures  which 
may  be  charged  against  them  are  the  consequences  of  corrupt  or 
ill  considered  appointments.  It  certainly  cannot  be  said  that  the 
parties  testifying  are  not  competent  or  reliable  witnesses.* 

I  quote  a  few  of  the  more  pointed  remarks  made  by  these 
gentlemen,  with  some  extended  passages  especially  from  the 
letters  of  Prof.  DtWoLK  and  President  K.  K.  WHITK,  of  Asbury 
University,  to  whom  I  have  referred  on  a  previous  pu^r. 

Dr.  HANCOCK,  formerly  Superintendent  of  the  Schools  of  Cin- 
cinnati, now  of  Dayton,  President  elect  of  the  National  Education 
Association,  speaks  thus  plainly:  "I  have  no  personal  knowledge 
of  a  single  case  in  which  a  candidate  from  the  public  schools,  lor 
either  West  Point  or  Annapolis,  failed  on  a  regular  examination 
for  admission.  The  standard  for  admission  to  West  Point  has 
been  so  much  raised  within  later  years,  that  all  Prof.  Cm 
says  in  regard  to  the  preparation  of  candidates  now,  as  compared 
with  that  of  candidates  fifty  years  ago,  is  the  merest  twaddle." 

Superintendent   K.  \V    Si  IAKNSON,  of  Columbus,   say- 
one  person  receiving  his  preparation  in  the  public  schools  of  this 
city  has  ever  failed  or  been  conditioned   in   any  branch  of  study. 
This  covers  a  period  of  thirty  years." 


•The  names  of  the  gentlemen  referred  to  are:  SAMI  M    KINDI.KY,  I'trs't  A    Si  iirvi.FK, 

M     HKKNNKM  \v  (1.  A.  CAKNAH  HAS.  S.  S.MAKT,   GKO.  \V 

I>r.  J.  -     II    M.PARKBR,  W.W.Ross,  G.W. WALKER,  President  I.  V 

President  JAS.  H.  r  \IK<  HII.D,   I'rof.  I».  I      iHWoi.K,   HON.  J.  J.  BURNS,   M.  R. 
'.i  >  IKMSHV  and  T.  J.  WILKS.     The  names  are  given  in 

the  order  in  which  the  cities  they  represent  would  stand  alphabetically  arranged. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  65 

President  I.  W.  ANDREWS,  of  Marietta,  has  held  his  present 
position  at  the  head  of  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  substantial 
colleges  of  the  State  for  more  than  twenty  years.  He  has  been 
a  close  observer  of  educational  affairs  nearly  forty  years.  His 
sagacity  is  beyond  question.  After  enumerating  the  young  men 
who  had  received  their  elementary  instruction  in  the  public  schools 
of  Marietta,  and  who  have  been  admitted  to  West  Point  and 
the  Naval  Academy  at  Annapolis,  President  ANDREWS  says :  •'  I 
am  glad  you  are  looking  into  this  subject,  and  would  be  pleased 
to  know  your  conclusions.  The  statement  of  Prof.  CHURCH  has 
been  incomprehensible  to  me." 

Prof.  D.  F.  DEWOLF,  formerly  Superintendent  of  Instruction 
in  Toledo,  and  now  Professor  of  Modern  Languages  and  Rhetoric 
in  Western  Reserve  College,  concludes  his  letter  as  follows  :  "  In 
short,  knowing  as  I  do  that  for  many  years,  until  quite  recently 
the  appointments  have  been  made,  in  our  •  region,  wholly  on 
political  grounds,  the  persons  concerned  carefully  avoiding  an 
open  market  and  the  selection  of  the  fittest,  or  the  giving  of  the 
fittest  an  opportunity  to  make  known  their  fitness,  I  do  not 
regard  the  examinations  or  standing  of  candidates  thus  taken  from 
the  public  schools  as  giving  any  indication  of  the  kind  of  work 
done  in  these  schools.  When,  as  at  the  time  of  the  last  appoint- 
ment, competitive  examinations  have  been  held,  the  public  schools 
have  not  suffered  in  comparison  with  other  schools.  Among  some 
eighteen  examined  then,  I  know  of  but  one  who  was  not  of  the 
public  schools.  This  one  must  have  been  a  sophomore  in  one 
of  our  colleges  of  this  State  that  call  other  colleges  significant 
names,  and  yet  in  this  competitive  examination  an  under-graduate 
of  a  public  school  received  the  appointment,  and  quite  a  number 
of  them  stood  higher  than  he.  Several  public  schools  of  the 
district  (Congressional)  had  representatives  among  the  last  num- 
ber. Yet  I  do  not  take  that  alone  as  an  indication  of  inferior 
work  in  that  college.  I  said  above  this  man  must  have  been  a 
sophomore,  because  he  has  since  graduated  from  his  college,  and 
I  am  quite  sure  the  examination  occurred  three  years  ago  next 
spring." 


66  OUR    COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

Hon.  K.  K.  WHITE,  now  President  of  Purdue  University,  speak- 
ing of  the  same  subject,  says  :  *  *  *  "I  have  known  several 
young  men  appointed  to  West  Point,  and  most  of  these  were 
pupils  in  public  schools.  It  is  my  impression  that  all  who  stood 
well  in  the  public  schools  were  admitted.  Several  who  attended 
school  irregularly  or  for  other  causes  failed  to  maintain  a  good  rank 
were  either  not  admitted  or  failed  as  students  after  admission,  1 
believe  this  has  been  the  general  experience. 

"  Permit  me  to  add,  that  while  I  do  not  question  Prof.  CIIURC  H'S 
ability  as  a  teacher,  or  his  candor  as  a  man,  1  doubt  the  correct 
ness  of  his  statement.  He  is  undoubtedly  confident  that  his 
judgment  is  correct,  but  I  do  not  believe  that  he  has  sufficient 
data  to  make  such  a  judgment.  The  standard  of  admission  to 
West  Point  is  not  the  same  that  it  was  forty  years  ago,  and  be- 
sides, the  method  of  examining  applicants  has  greatly  changed. 
It  was  formerly  oral ;  it  is  now  largely  written,  if  I  am  correctly 
informed. 

"  I  have  been  an  examiner  of  pupils  and  teachers  most  of  the 
time  for  twenty-five  years,  and  I  would  not  undertake  to  compare 
the  results  of  an  oral  examination  with  those  of  a  written  exam 
ination.  The  tests  are  very  different.  *  *  *  Again  and  again  have 
classes,  that  passed  creditably  oral  tests,  failed  to  pass  a  written 
test,  intended  to  be  no  more  severe  or  difficult. 

"  In  my  recent  trip  to  Europe,  I  crossed  the  ocean,  going  and 
returning,  in  company  with  four  West  Point  instructors.  I  took 
special  pains  to  learn  from  them  the  present  method  of  examining 
applicants  at  West  Point,  and  the  changes  in  the  tests  within  their 
knowledge  and  experience.  The  result  of  these  conversations 
was  a  conviction  that  no  one  can  compare  the  scholarship  of 
present  applicants  with  that  of  applicants  examined  twenty  years 
ago,  much  less  forty  years  ago.  What  sale  comparison,  for 
instance,  can  be  made  between  the  results  of  a  spelling  test,  con- 
sisting of  one  hundred  or  more  words  pronounced  successively 
to  a  number  of  applicants,  and  another  test  requiring  each  appli- 
cant to  write  a  part  of  one  of  Webster's  speeches,  or  an  extract 
from  Milton,  dictated  orally?  *  *  * 

"  1  have  used  the  written  method  for  nearly  twenty-five  years, 
and  1  have  preserved  many  sets  of  the  questions  used,  and,  in  a 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  67 

considerable  number  of  cases,  the  results.  It  is  my  impression 
that  young  people  now  going  out  from  our  schools,  cipher,  spell 
and  write  better  than  they  did  twenty-five  years  ago.  There  has 
certainly  been  a  decided  improvement  in  reading.  I  am  however 
obliged  to  add,  that  the  elementary'  training  of  the  schools  is  still 
poor  enough  to  demand  better  teaching." 

Such  is  the  testimony  of  educators  who  have  had  occasion  to 
notice  the  qualifications  of  young  men  who  have  been  sent  up  to 
the  great  national  Military  and  Naval  Schools.  But  on  this  point 
we  have  other  testimony  from  West  Point  than  Prof.  CHURCH'S. 

Prof.  MICHIE,  in  a  private  letter  already  referred  to,  writes  that 
"  within  a  few  years  past  some  Congressmen  have  thrown  the 
position  open  for  competition,  and  in  most  cases  that  have  im- 
pressed me,  I  believe  the  successful  competitor  is  from  the  com- 
mon or  high  school  of  his  district.* 

Speaking  further  on  this  subject,  Prof.  MICHIE  says : 

•  I  may  say  that  we  have  had  several  graduates  of  the  Cincinnati  High 
Schools  as  cadets,  who  have  all  taken  very  high  rank  in  their  classes.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  the  New  York  Free  Academy  (now  the  College  of  the 
City  of  New  York)  and  I  doubt  not  the  fact  would  have  been  established  in 
the  cases  of  most  of  our  high  graduates,  that  they  have  had  all  the  advantages 
of  public  school  education  in  their  youth." 

Of  the  unclassified  or  common  district  schools  I  cannot  say 
much.  That  there  has  been  some  improvement  in  them  within 
the  last  fifteen  or  twenty  years  cannot  be  questioned.  But  the 
progress  of  reformation  is  not  uniform  in  different  sections  even 
of  the  same  State,  and  at  best  it  is  everywhere  very  slow.  The 
standard  of  education  for  millions  of  youth  cannot  be  raised 
easily,  nor  in  a  short  time.  Majorities  for  needed  school  legisla- 
tion must  first  be  obtained.  Every  step  of  advancement  has  to 
be  lost  many  a  time  before  it  can  be  finally  held.  For  illustration, 
though  sane  men  would  not  attempt  any  other  work  of  like  mag- 
nitude without  employing  the  best  experts  to  direct  and  supervise 


'The  representatives  c  f  this  congressional  district  should  be  especially  mentioned  as  hav- 
ing always  opened  these  appointments  to  public  competition,  and  the  uniform  result  has  been 
that  the  prize  has  been  gained  l.y  a  public  school  loy,  and  no  one  sent  hat  been  rejected. 
I  believe  only  one  has  failed  to  complete  the  course. 


68  OUR    COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

every  agency  by  which  it  was  carried  on,  yet  the  friends  of  educa- 
tion have  been  battling  for  thirty  years  or  more  for  county 
supervision.  Mechanics  of  the  lowest  grade  are  required  to  serve 
an  apprenticeship  before  they  are  permitted  to  go  into  a  shop, 
though  they  are  there  subject  to  constant  oversight ;  yet,  without 
so  much  as  a  day's  special  preparation  for  the  important  work 
which  awaits  them,  teachers  are  employed  annually  in  thou- 
sands of  schools  that  are  never  visited  by  a  competent  inspector. 
It  is  only  by  the  most  tedious  process  that  one  generation  of 
teachers  after  another  can  be  raised  up,  each  only  a  little  better 
than  the  preceding  one.  Since  the  beginning  of  the  educational 
reformation,  which  was  inaugurated  only  forty  years  ago,  such  a 
work  could  be  no  more  than  initiated  at  comparatively  few  points. 
But  while  this  movement  has  been  so  tardy,  the  standard  of 
requirement  for  admission  to  the  Military  Academy,  even  "within 
the  same  scope,"  may  be  raised  fifty  or  five  hundred  per  cent,  in 
a  single  hour's  consultation  of  the  Academic  Board.  It  is  unde- 
niable that  it  has  been  considerably  raised,  and  the  result  only 
shows  that  it  has  been  raised  more  rapidly  than  the  standard  of 
education  throughout  the  country.  This  being  the  case,  as  we 
have  shown  by  incontestable  evidence,  it  is  not  strange  that  there 
should  be  a  great  increase  in  the  number  of  rejections. 

But  may  it  not  be  that  these  schools,  with  all  their  faults,  have 
been  unfairly  judged?  May  it  not  be  that  the  examinations  now 
are  as  much  too  severe  as  they  used  to  be  too  lax?  Examiners 
are  not  always  judicious.  See  what  HERBERT  SPENCER  says  of 
various  examinations  that  have  found  a  place  in  his  note-book.  I 
do  not  speak  here  in  behalf  of  the  great  classified  schools  ;  we 
have  seen  that  they  take  very  good  care  of  themselves.  We  are 
now  considering  the  case  of  Mr.  HINSDALK'S  model  schools:  the 
"no-system  "  schools  of  the  country  districts.  JHit  hear  what  Mr. 
SPKNCER  says  of  examinations: 

*  *  *  "Our  attention  is  arrested  by  the  general  fact  that  examiners,  and 
es|>ecially  those  appointed  under  recent  systems  of  administration,  habitually 
put  questions  of  which  a  large  proportion  are  utterly  inappropriate.  A^  I  learn 
from  his  son,  one  of  our  judges  not  long  since  found  himself  unable  in  answer 
an  examination-paper  that  had  been  laid  before  law-students.  A  well  known 
Greek  scholar,  editor  of  a  Creek  play,  who  was  appointed  examiner,  found 
that  the  examination-paper  set  by  his  predecessor  was  too  difficult  for  him. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  69 

Mr.  FROUDE,  in  his  inaugural  address  to  St.  Andrews,  describing  a  paper  set 
by  an  examiner  in  English  History,  said,  '  I  could  myself  have  answered  two 
questions  out  of  a  dozen,'  and  I  learn  from  Mr.  G.  H.  LEWIS  that  he  could 
not  give  replies  to  the  questions  on  English  literature  which  the  Civil  Service 
examiners  had  put  to  his  son,  joining  which  testimonies  with  kindred  ones 
coming  from  students  and  professors  on  all  sides,  we  find  the  really  note- 
worthy thing  to  be  that  examiners,  instead  of  setting  questions  fit  for  students, 
set  questions  which  make  manifest  their  own  e&ensive  learning.  Especially 
if  they  are  young,  and  have  reputations  to  make  or  to  justify,  they  seize  the 
occasion  for  displaying  their  erudition,  regardless  of  the  interests  of  those  they 


How  far  these  remarks  may  apply  to  the  examinations  at  West 
Point  we  do  not  know.  Possibly  they  may  be  wholly  inapplica- 
ble, but  surely  one  ought  to  know  before  he  makes  any  deduction 
either  from  the  results  of  one  examination  or  from  a  series  of 
examinations. 

President  H!NSDALE,  turning  from  the  further  discussion  of  the 
West  Point  examinations,  says:  "Perhaps  (the  evidence  sub- 
mitted) does  not  prove  a  deterioration  of  the  common-school 
education  of  the  country.  Perhaps  evidence  to  justify  that  asser- 
tion has  not  been  accumulated,  or  does  not  exist."  In  this  we 
are  disposed  to  agree  with  him ;  but  let  us  pass  to  the  latter  part 
of  the  same  paragraph,  in  which  he  proposes  to  comment  upon 
some  of  the  tendencies  of  the  system  which  he  avows  to  be  wrong : 
"What  some  of  these  tendencies  are,"  he  says,  "will  appear  as  I 
point  out  some  of  the  causes  of  the  inferiority  of  our  elementary 
instruction."  Without  calling  attention  to  the  facility  with  which 
he  assumes  the  very  thing  to  be  true  which  he  allows  may  not  be 
proved,  and  without  any  comment  on  his  use  of  "elementary 
instruction"  here,  and  "common  education"  on  the  next  page,  as 
synonymous  expressions,  we  have  to  say  that  the  causes  which  he 
points  out  for  the  one  or  the  other  as  he  pleases,  do  not  particu- 
larly concern  us  just  here.  We  shall  not  plead  that  our  boys  of 
to-day  do  not  learn  so  much  as  those  of  two  or  three  generations 
ago  because  many  of  them  are  children  of  foreign  immigrants  ; 
nor  because  the  time  now  devoted  to  school  attendance  is  so 
much  less  than  it  used  to  be  ;  nor  because  "  study  at  home  was 
once  the  constant  rule,  and  now  the  infrequent  exception  ;"  nor 


*Study  of  Sociology,  American  Edition,  p.  97. 


70  OUR   COMMON    SCHOOL   EDUCATION. 

because  our  children  are  "  absorbed  in  the  distractions  of  busi- 
ness, of  politics  and  social  life;"  nor  because  they  "eagerly  read 
the  papers  for  exciting  news."  We  straightly  deny  the  "inferi- 
ority," and  have  no  need  of  the  excuses.  On  the  contrary,  we 
claim,  so  far  as  these  grounds  of  alleged  inferiority  may  be  true, 
that  they  be  set  over  to  our  credit,  not  as  reasons  for  a  miserable- 
inferiority,  but  as  obstacles  to  a  more  glorious  success. 

But  we  are  more  interested  to  follow  President  HINSDALE  and 
Prof.  PEABODY  as  they  leave  the  material  and  approach  the 
schools.  They  complain  that  the  graded  school  system  is  exceed- 
ingly rigid  and  inelastic.  By  this  they  undoubtedly  mean  that 
pupils  can  be  advanced  from  class  to  class  only  at  regular  inter 
vals  of  time  and  that  the  bright  pupil,  the  mediocre  and  the  dul 
lard  are  advanced  alike.  President  HINSDALE  says  : 

"  Its  tendency  is  to  stretch  all  the  pupils  on  the  same  bedstead." 
"  Then  the  tendency  of  the  graded  schools  is  to  sacrifice  the  brightest  children 
to  the  dullards  or  to  the  mediocres.  The  dul  lest  Cannot  be  made  to  keep  pace 
with  the  brightest,  where  the  latter  are  going  at  their  normal  pace  ;  but  the 
best  can  be  made  to  go  as  slowly  as  the  dullest,  or,  if  the  ability  of  the  dullard 
be  not  the  standard  of  achievement,  then  it  is  the  ability  of  the  mediocre.  In 
no  case  do  or  can  the  brightest  minds  have  a  fair  chance." 

This  point  is  certainly  worthy  of  most  careful  consideration  not 
only  in  this  discussion,  but  always,  especially  in  the  practical 
management  of  schools,  whether  graded  or  ungraded.  Kvery 
child  has  a  right  to  the  normal  development  of  his  mind  accord- 
ing to  his  native  capacity.  To  stunt  the  mind  is  no  less  criminal 
than  to  stunt  the  body.  If  the  graded  school  be  obnoxious 
to  this  charge,  it  matters  not  what  it  may  offer  in  compensation, 
let  us  go  back^to  the  "no-system"  schools  of  former  periods  or  the 
rural  district  schools  of  to-day  and  if  they  do  not  give  opportunity 
for  the  growth  of  "a  man  "  let  them  too  "be  smashed,"  let  us 
throw  away  all  our  grand  schemes  of  education,  and  begin  again. 

I  !ut  does  the  objection  hold  ?  Let  us  look  into  the  schools  and 
take  an  extreme  case.  A  class  of  fifty  boys  is  before  us  ;  they  are 
all  studying  arithmetic,  grammar,  geography;  they  all  read  and 
spell.  Let  us  examine  into  their  case,  and  ascertain  how  many  of 
them  appear  to  be  retarded  by  their  association  with  stupid  com- 
panions. Here  we  have  some  records  at  hand  which  show  exactly 


PAST    AND    PRESENT.  71 

what  we  shall  find.  Some  of  them  stand  from  fifty  to  sixty  in 
arithmetic  and  seventy  to  eighty  in  grammar.  Others  stand  eighty- 
five  to  ninety  in  the  former  and  sixty  to  seventy  in  the  latter. 
Now  who  suffers  by  the  association  of  the  class  ?  Not  the  most 
brilliant.  The  one  who  stands  highest  has  perhaps  ninety.  Now 
ninety  means  that  he  has  failed  entirely  on  one  question  out  of  ten, 
or  parts  of  two  or  more  questions,  That  is,  he  has  exerted  his 
utmost  power,  "blood' and  training"  have  done  their  best  and  yet 
there  is  more  to  do.  But  how  about  the  dullard?  He  stands 
perhaps  forty  or  fifty  on  a  scale  of  one  hundred.  Have  his  inter- 
ests been  sacrificed  for  his  brighter  companions  1  The  probability 
is  that  even  he  has  spent  so  much  time  in  the  study,  review  and 
re-review  of  the  matter  gone  over  that  he  has  absorbed  all  the  in- 
formation and  acquired  all  the  discipline  of  which  his  sluggish  na- 
ture is  capable. 

Sixty,  seventy-five  and  ninety  stand  for  all  the  acquisitions  of 
three  different  boys,  which  can  be  represented  by  percentages. 
Is  that  all  (  Far  from  it.  One  has  learned  only  that  which  lies 
upon  the  surface  of  things.  A  few  facts  of  science  have  a  lodg- 
ment in  his  memory  more  or  less  permanent,  according  to  the 
power  of  his  retentive  taculty.  His  knowledge  is  superficial  and 
cannot  be  otherwise,  because  his  reasoning  power  is  feeble.  The 
mediocre  understands  your  rules  and  applies  them  and  by  dint  of 
study  he  masters  some  of  their  principles.  In  the  meantime  the 
brighter  boys  possess  themselves  of  process  and  principle  and  gain 
an  insight  into  the  deeper  relation  of  things.  You  have  done  for 
the  three  boys  what  was  most  profitable  for  each.  By  the  very 
classification  which  has  been  objected  to,  you  have  stimulated  the 
sluggish  boy  up  to  his  highest  capacity,  and  you  have  compelled 
and  habituated  the  bright  boy  to  dwell  upon  a  subject  of  study 
till  it  is  understood  according  to  the  strength  and  maturity  of  his 
intellect.  But  there  is  yet  something  more  than  the  mastering 
even  of  broadest  principles,  in  which  all  are  exercised  alike,  but 
with  very  different  results.  There  is  a  clearness  of  statement, 
readiness,  precision  and  power  in  the  use  of  language  which  goes 
for  much  in  the  intercourse  of  the  world,  and  certainly  quite  as 
much  in  the  development  of  mind. 


72  OUR   COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

1  have  spoken  of  the  boys  who  are  regularly  advanced  from 
year  to  year  with  their  class,  but  with  vastly  different  degrees  of 
excellence  and  as  widely  different  results  as  to  general  culture. 
But  there  are  two  extremes  of  which  I  have  not  spoken.     There 
is  the  dullard  who  fails  to  be  advanced  with  his  class.     He  falls 
back  into  the  class  which  was  below  him.     The  advocate  of  the 
"no-system"  school  cries  out  that  "it  is  unjust  to  keep  him  back 
six  months  for  a  deficiency  which  he  might  make  up  in  one."     If 
the  page  of  a  text  book  or  the  line  of  a  syllabus  were  the  standard 
by  which  his  mastery  of  a  subject  is  to  be  determined  we  should 
grant  its  injustice.    It  would  be  stretching* some,  though  not  all,  "on 
the  same  bedstead."     But  there  is  a  maximum  and  a  minimum  to 
be  gained  within  the  same  scope  of  study  and  no  one  will  deny 
that  the  maximum  of  attainment  which  may  be  reached  in  any  one 
class  is  at  least  of  equal  value  to  the  merely  passable  minimum  of 
the  next  higher.     Then  there  are  some  of  superior  mental  endow- 
ments but  backward  in  their  studies  who  come  into  your  graded 
schools  at  an  advanced  age.     From  what  President    HINSDALE 
says,  it  might  be  supposed  that  they  would  be  allowed  to  move 
forward  only  at  the  slow  pace  of  their  younger  associates.     The 
supposition,  however,  would  be  possible  only  to  those  who  know 
nothing  of  the  practical  workings  of  the  graded  schools  under 
ordinarily  judicious  management.     The   truth  is  that  pupils   are 
promoted   in  graded  schools,  as  well  as  others,   whenever  it  be- 
comes apparent  that  they  can  be  advanced  without  prejudice  to 
health  or  sound  scholarship.     In  the  city  of  Cleveland — I  speuk 
of  it  only  by  way  of  illustration — hundreds  are  thus  put  forward 
every  year.     Of  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  admtted  to  the  High 
Schools  last  summer,  nearly^fifty  went  in,  in  advance  of  the  classes 
with  which  they  had   been  associated  only  a  year  or  two  before. 
Of  the  graduates  of  the  High  Schools  at  last  annual  commence- 
ment, one,  a  boy,   entered  the  D  grammar,  class  only   two  and  a 
half  years  previous ;  another,  a  girl,  only  about  live  or  six   years 
ago  entered  the  B  Primary.*     These  however  are  extreme  cases 
of  rapid  advancement,  as  there  are  on   the  other   hand   extreme 


i.iy  seem  a  little   remark. ililc    in  view  of  what    Prof.    PKAHOUY  says  of  the  supcrim 
v  nfdiililrcn  "having  ^ciicralioiiN  <>l  culture  behind  them,"  that  the  parents  of  neither 
of  the.sc  pupils  I.iy  any  social  claims  to  culture. 


PAST    AND    PRESENT.  73 

cases  of  tardy  progress.  Between  these  extremes  there  is  play 
enough  to  show  that  the  complaints  that  the  graded  school  system 
is  "rigid,"  "inelastic,"  "tyrannous,"  "a  procrustean  bed,"  etc., 
etc.,  are  not  founded  on  prevailing  facts. 

Closely  connected  with  its  alleged  inelasticity,  just  noticed,  is 
the  objection  that  the  graded-school  system  requires  a  uniformity 
of  training  and  discipline,  "  which  tends  for  the  time  being,  as 
much  as  possible,  to  wipe  out  all  individual  differences,  to  destroy 
individual  ambition,  and  to  produce  in  the  end,  as  Mr.  ELIOT 
says,  an  average  product,  a  sort  of  mental,  moral  and  physical 
mean  standard,  which  has  been  obtained  quite  as  much  by 
stunting  what  is  good  in  the  children  educated,  as  by  forcing 
work  out  of  the  dull."  * 

Inasmuch  as  this  is  a  merely  speculative  view  of  the  probable 
result  of  our  graded-school  systems,  I  shall  give  it  but  little  atten- 
tion. 

It  is  only  another  form  of  an  old  argument  which  was  once 
urged  against  the  Military  and  Naval  Academies :  an  argument 
which  has  been  utterly  discredited  by  the  history  of  those  two 
great  arms  of  national  defence.  Precisely  the  same  argument  was 
originally  used  against  Normal  schools.  It  was  said  of  the 
latter  that  they  would  tend  to  repress  individuality,  and  train  up 
teachers  of  only  respectable  mediocrity.  This  too  has  been  dis- 
proved by  experience.  An  argument  something  like  this  used  to 
be  urged  against  allowing  pupils  to  write  after  engraved  copies, 
because  it  would  destroy  that  individuality  of  hand-writing,  which 
it  was  said  "  was  the  only  safeguard  against  forgery,"  etc.  Had 
these  argument  proved  to  be  of  any  worth,  it  might  seem  advisa- 
ble to  meet  the  objections  now  urged  against  graded  schools.  As 
it  is,  we  may  safely  pass  to  another  point.  In  the  meantime,  let 
us  take  heart  from  the  lesson  which  nature  teaches.  The  oak  tree 
and  the  blackberry  bush  are  called  to  life  by  the  same  sun ;  they 
have  been  nourished  by  the  same  earth  for  thousands  of  years  ; 
yet  both  blackberry  bush  and  oak  tree  have  maintained  their  in- 
dividualities to  this  day. 


'The  Nation  No.  517,  as  quoted  by  President  HINSUALK. 


74  OUR   COMMON   SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

The  classification  of  a  school,  be  it  large  or  small,  is  arranging 
in  a  class  or  grade  all  the  pupils  who  can  receive  instruction 
together  with  advantage.  If  this  classification  be  made  carefully, 
and  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  ability  of  the  pupils  as  well  as 
their  advancement  in  their  studies,  it  is  likely  to  be  permanent 
for  the  majority  of  them.  For  none  however  is  it  a  cast-iron 
arrangement  which  cannot  be  altered.  As  we  have  seen,  some 
pupils  soon  demonstrate  their  ability  to  go  forward  to  the  next 
higher  class,  and  others  show  that  they  are  too  weak  to  keep  pace 
with  their  associates.  In  the  class  above  or  below,  these  find 
their  level  and  the  work  for  which  they  are  fitted  by  natural 
capacity  and  habits  of  study. 

The  original  purpose  of  the  arrangement  was  to  enable  teach- 
ers to  gain  time  for  attention  to  the  work  of  each  class  and  of 
each  individual  member  of  a  class.  How  much  more  readily 
and  thoroughly  this  may  be  done  than  in  the  ungraded  school, 
can  easily  be  understood  even  by  one  Who  is  not  habituated  to 
look  into  such  matters.  By  way  of  illustration :  let  there  be  fifty 
pupils  all  in  one  class;  call  it  a  "platoon,"  or  any  other  obnoxious 
name  you  please.  All  are  studying  the  same  problems  in  per- 
centage; all  read,  spell  and  recite  geography  and  grammar  together. 
The  teacher,  having  only  four  or  five  subjects  of  instruction,  studies 
her  lessons  more  exhaustively  than  her  pupils.  She  knows  just 
where  every  difficulty  lies,  and  how  it  is  to  be  met.  Let  us  sup- 
pose that  an  arithmetic  lesson  is  to  be  heard  or  given.  A  certain 
part  of  the  work,  some  principle  or  other,  perhaps,  needs  to  be 
explained.  By  a  few  rapid  questions  the  teacher  finds  out  what 
all  know,  what  some  do  and  others  do  not,  and  what  none  know. 
The  work  that  needs  to  be  done  for  all  is  done,  it  may  be,  in  five 
or  ten  minutes,  while  in  an  ungraded  school,  where  each  pupil  is 
in  a  class  by  himself,  it  would  take  a  whole  forenoon  to  do  the 
same  amount  of  work  for  each,  and  it  would  have  to  be  done 
under  the  disadvantage  of  many  being  idle  while  waiting  for 
needed  help,  or  under  the  pretence  of  needing  it.  The  explana- 
tion for  all  being  thus  given  in  a  few  minutes,  and  for  sections  of 
the  class  according  to  their  needs  in  a  ftw  more,  the  inspection 
of  the  work  of  all,  and  individual  instruction  where  it  is  required, 
begins;  and  in  an  hour  all  is  done,  and  well  done,  that  othciwise 


PAST    AND    PRESENT.      .  75 

would  have  been  very  poorly  done  in  a  day.  For  every  subject 
taught,  the  advantage  is  the  same  not  only  to  the  whole  "platoon,"' 
but  to  each  individual.  The  truth  is,  that  for  forty  or  fifty  pupils, 
the  only  place  where  anything  like  individual  instruction  can  be 
had  is  in  the  thoroughly  graded  school. 

What  is  said,  on  this  point,  in  that  most  excellent  pedagogical 
library,  the  "Encyclopedia  of  Education,"  applies  to  the  whole 
question  at  issue. 

"  Heterogeneous  masses  of  children  cannot  be  instructed  simul- 
taneously. They  may  be  made  to  perform  mechanically  certain 
school  exercises;  may  perhaps  be  taught  to  read,  to  spell,  to 
write  and  to  cipher  to  some  extent ;  but  it  can  only  be  by  rote, 
without  the  due  exercise  of  their  intelligence,  and  hence  without 
proper  mental  development,  A  poorly  classified  school  can  never 
be  really  efncieat,  whatever  talent  in  teaching  may  be  brought  to 
bear  upon  it." 

Classification  has  another  advantage,  which  is  conceded  it  by 
Mr.  HINSDALE.  I  refer  to  division  of  labor.  The  highest  skill 
in  any  one  branch  of  instruction,  and  I  am  almost  disposed  to 
add  at  any  stage  thereof,  can  be  reached  only  in  a  thoroughly 
classified  school. 

The  graded  school  is  not  the  thought  of  to  day,  nor  of  those 
who  are  now  engaged  in  the  work  of  teaching.  In  all  its  features, 
it  was  advocated  years  ago  by  men  who  in  their  youth  had  expe- 
rienced all  the  disadvantages  of  the  ungraded  schools  of  two  or 
three  generations  past.  They  knew  by  sad  experience  that  the 
kind  of  individual  instruction — individual  neglect  rather — which 
they  themselves  had  received,  could  not  lift  the  schools  out  of  the 
depths  into  which  they  had  fallen.  They  saw  clearly  that  even 
Normal  schools  would  be  of  little  avail,  unless  the  common 
schools  could  be  so  organized  that  time  might  be  gained  for 
something  more  than  hurried  memoriter  repetitions  of  rules  and 
definitions,  and  the  almost  unguided,  solitary  work  of  the  scholar. 

If  proof  is  wanting  of  the  superior  efficiency  of  classified  schools, 
it  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that  wherever  they  have  sprung  up, 
however  defective  they  may  have  been  at  the  start,  private  schools 
have  failed  at  once;  or,  if  they  have  survived  for  a  time,  unless 


76  OUR    COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

in  hands  of  teachers  of  exceptional  ability,  they  have  soon  be- 
come subjects  for  ridicule.  The  private  school,  and  even  the 
endowed  academy  throughout  the  whole  country,  is  going  down 
before  the  graded-school  system.  Every  town  of  one  thousand 
inhabitants  and  upwards  used  to  support  many  of  them.  Now 
they  can  have  a  healthy  existence  only  in  the  largest  cities. 

But  Mr.  HINSDALE  says  "there  is  a  wide-spread  dissatisfaction 
with  the  results  of  the  prevalent  system."  We  have  shown  else- 
where how  various  and  contradictory  the  causes  of  dissatisfaction 
are.  That  they  should  be  so  is  not  wonderful,  for  the  common 
schools  touch  more  nearly  the  deepest  interests  of  the  human 
heart  than  any  other  secular  institution.  The  principles  of  edii'-a 
tion  are  not  generally  understood.  The  father  and  the  mother  see 
that  their  children  are  not  taught  as  they  were  ;  and  if  incapacity 
or  other  causes  prevent  progress,  the  blame  is  very  naturally  laid 
to  the  changes  in  the  methods  of  instruction.  Hence  dissatis- 
faction does  not  exist  to  any  great  degree  among  the  parents 
of  the  bright  children.  But  whether  it  exist  among  one  class  or 
another,  it  is  well  that  it  does  exist  somewhere,  for  there  is  no- 
thing more  certain  than  this,  that  dissatisfaction  is  an  incen- 
tive to  improvement.  If,  however,  men  avail  themselves  of  this 
dissatisfaction  to  incite  discontent  and  produce  reaction,  though 
they  may  succeed  for  a  time  as  reactionists  have  done,  they  will 
find  that  what  was  dissatisfaction  will  in  the  end  become  devo- 
tion. 

But  Mr.  HINSDALE  suggestively  raises  the  question  whether  the 
public  school  is  "the  best  place  for  a  man  to  put  his  bright  boy 
or  girl,  if  he  happens  to  have  a  bright  one."  In  answer  to  this 
question,  I  can  only  say  that  it  is  no  uncommon  thing  for 
men  of  intelligence  to  seek  out  the  private  school  for  the  weak- 
ling of  the  flock,  while  the  brighter  and  more  ambitious  children 
are  sent  to  the  public  school.  An  eminent  physician  of  thi 
but  recently  told  me  that  he  has  noticed  this  as  a  very  common 
practice  in  the  families  which  he  visits.  The  common  opinion  on 
this  point  is  well  illustrated  by  an  incident  recently  related  to 
me,  of  an  earnest,  studious  daughter  of  wealthy  parents  in  our 
city,  who,  when  it  was  proposed  to  send  her  to  a  private  school 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  77 

with  a  sister  who  was  notably  deficient  in  intellect,  said  :  "  Oh, 
that  school  will  do  well  enough  for  (we  will  say)  Mattie,  but  I 
hope  you  don't  think  it's  the  place  for  me." 

But  notwithstanding  we  appreciate  so  highly  the  superiority  of 
the  graded  schools  as  compared  with  the  unclassified,  we  do  not 
think  that  they  are  without  defect  nor  do  we  think  that  they  are 
"  ideal  "  places  for  the  education  either  of  bright  boy  or  dullard,* 
for  who  is  there  on  earth  that  has  practically  realized  an  institu- 
tion so  fair  that  the  mind  of  man  may  not  conceive  a  fairer  ? 

No,  the  public  school  is  not  claimed  to  be  perfect.  High  above 
all  existing,  all  possible  systems,  there  is  "  a  model  which  we  may 
approach  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  but  which  is  yet  infinitely 
distant,"  and  as  our  progress  is  upward  this  ideal  will  forever 
recede  until  it  merges  into  the  absolute  and  perfect.  Men  may 
forever  struggle  to  reach  it,  but  it  will  forever  be  infinitely  distant. 

But  we  are  not  content  to  disclaim  any  notion  that  our  graded 
schools  are  perfect.  We  go  further  and  say  that  they  are  not  as 
good  as  they  can  be  made ;  that,  as  Prof.  HINSDALE  says,  "  they 
need  much  criticism  and  revision."  Let  us  enumerate  only  a  few 
of  their  principal  faults. 

1.  They  are  not  adapted  as  they  might  be  to  the  preparation 
of  the  young  for  the  different  avocations  of  life.     For  example : 
the  young  man  who  has  an  ambition  to  take  respectable  rank 
among  the  mechanics  of  the  future  should,  before  he  leaves  the 
High   School,  be  well  advanced   in  the  mathematics  and  other 
sciences  on  which  his  success  must  mainly  depend.     Even  in  the 
Grammar    school  grades,  some  differences  should  be   made  be- 
tween the  course  of  study  of  those  who  are  going  into  mercantile 
or  mechanical  pursuits  and  those  who   are  destined  for  a  literary 
or  professional  career.     The  former  especially  need  the  sciences, 
the  latter  the  classics. 

2.  The  classes   in  our  graded  schools  are  generally  too  large; 
and,  singular  as  it  may  seem,  those  that  have  the  highest  reputa- 
tion are  the  most  liable  to  objection  on  this  score.     Their  mana- 
gers pay   high   salaries    that   they  may  obtain  the  most    efficient 

K  \  x  r  said,  "  What  I  have   termed  an  ideal  was  in  Plato's  philosophy  an  idea  of  the  Di- 
vine inuid."     Meiklejohn's  Translation,  Critique  of  Pure  Reason. 


78  OUR    COMMON   SCHOOL   EDUCATION. 

teachers,  and  then,  to  compensate,  give  them  too  many  pupils  to 
teach.  If  you  must  have  large  classes  to  justify  the  employment 
of  the  best  teachers,  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  this  being  the  bet- 
ter policy.  But  the  wisdom  of  the  future  will  require  that  while 
we  sacrifice  nothing  in  the  quality  of  the  teacher  we  must  gain  by 
reducing  the  number  of  children  under  her  care  by  at  least  one- 
half.  But  this  will  be  possible  only  when  education  is  estimated 
at  something  like  its  true  worth. 

3.  The  course  of  study  in  these  schools  is  not  adapted  to  the 
best  education  of  the  pupils.     This  is  especially  true  of  the  gram 
mar  grades  in   which   an  aitempt  is  made  to  teach   too  much  of 
arithmetic  and   grammar.     Time  is  wasted   in  fruitless  efforts  to 
teach  what  can  not  be  comprehended  by  the  youth  often  to  four- 
teen years  of  age  while  that  which  he  could  understand  and  which 
would  be  of  greater  use  in  Lhis  daily  business  and  social  life  is 
neglected. 

4.  In  country  towns  and  village  districts  having  a  few  hundred 
children,  and  sometimes  in  places  of  larger  pretensions,  uneducated 
and  superficial  men  are  sometimes  put  upen  boards  of  education; 
incompetent   or   inexperienced    teachers    are   employed    to   be 
changed  year  by  year;  a  full  course  of  study  ranging  from  primary 
to  high  school  is  developed,  generally  in  imitation  of  some  large 
city,  and  the  effigy  of  a  graded  system  is  then   hung   up  for  the 
ridicule  of  our  critics  while  the  more  judicious  mourn.     This  is  a 
free  country,  the  forms  of  law  have  been  complied  with  and  who 
shall  say  nay?     It  is  the  graded  school  thus  organized  and   ad- 
ministered  that   brings  discredit   upon   the   whole   public-school 
system,  just  as  our  co-called  colleges  and  universities  bring  dis- 
credit upon  the  cause  of  higher  education.     It  is  such  institutions 
as  these  that  send  up  boys  to  the  Military  and  Naval  Academies 
who  profess  to  have   studied  sciences,  the  names  of  which  they 
cannot  spell.     Truly  the  public  schools  do  need  much  criticism 
and  revision,  if  these  be   the  specimens  by  which  you  judge  of 
their  defects ;  but   you    might   as  properly  judge  the  artists  of 
Kngland  by  the  execution  of  the  sign-boards  which  swing  in  front 
of  her  public  houses. 

5.  But   the  faults  in    the  well  graded    public  schools,  which 
cannot  Le  collected  for  van t. of  a  public  sentiment  to  sustain  the 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  79 

somewhat  radical  changes  which  would  be  necessary  to  effect 
reform,  and  the  graver  faults  of  those  half-classified  schools,  which 
make  pretences  of  impossible  courses  of  study  at  the  expense  of 
thoroughness  at  every  point — these  faults  are  not  the  only  ones 
which  we  feel  bound  to  acknowledge.  There  are  very  common 
faults,  which  might  be  corrected  in  a  good  degree  if  intelligent 
and  determined  men  were  always  put  upon  Boards  of  Education, 
and  if  such  men  were  duly  sustained  by  the  people  in  the  perform- 
ance of  their  duties.  Such  are  the  faults  which  result  from  the 
employment  of  incompetent  teachers,  faults  of  organization  and 
administration,  faults  of  plans  of  study.  Finally,  making  one 
broad  admission,  we  confess  that  the  graded  schools  are  scored 
all  over  with  the  faults  which  are  incident  to  all  human  affairs. 

THE    FORMALISM   OF   THE   SCHOOLS. 

President  HINSDALE,  in  speaking  of  the  schools  of  New  Eng- 
land a  century  or  half  a  century  ago,  quotes  from  Dr.  PEA  BODY 
as  follows : 

' '  There  was  no  arbitrary  or  fixed  arrangement  of  classes  or  plan  of  classifi- 
cation, but  each  scholar  was  virtually  a  class  by  himself,  in  some  studies 
perhaps  reciting  alone,  often  out  of  school  hours,  in  others  associated  with 
different  cempanions,  according  to  his  or  her  proficiency." 

Mr.  HINSDALE  then  continues : 

"  Now  all  this  is  changed.  In  place  of  an  inartificial  method  or  no  method, 
we  have  an  educational  liturgy — each  gospel,  collect,  psalm  and  prayer  attended 
by  its  appropriate  rubric."  Against  the  current  formalism  of  teachers  he  di- 
rects some  of  his  hardest  blows.  He  says  he  has  "heard  every  member  of  a 
class  of  twenty  obliged  to  repeat  separately  '  one  bean  anil  two  beans  are  three 
beans.'  Also,  that  he  had  listened  to  an  object  lesson  in  which  the  teacher 
'  spent  several  minutes  in  demonstrating,  with  a  wonderful  affluence  of  illus- 
tration, to  children  six  or  seven  years  old,  that  the  horse  had  four  legs  and  a 
child  but  two.'" 

To  this,  I  would  only  make  such  reply  as  would  occur  to  the 
ordinary  reader,  that  because  Dr.  PEABODY  had  happened  to  see 
these  things  it  don't  go  very  far  to  prove  that  they  are  common  or 
essential  to  a  graded-school  system.  For  one,  1  have  never  seen 
anything  approach  the  silliness  of  the  "  demonstration  "  spoken 
of.  As  to  the  repetition  of  "  one  bean  and  two  beans  are  three 


80  ODK   COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

beans, "  it  may  have  seemed  necessary  to  a  very  sensible  and 
excellent  teacher  to  require  such  a  thing  in  some  particular  case, 
yet  I  think  /  have  never  heard  any  one  do  it. 

But  let  us  do  justice.  Is  it  not  altogether  likely  that  Prof. 
I'KAHODY  introduced  these  incidents  for  the  purpose  of  enlivening 
an  afternoon's  discourse  before  a  teachers'  association  rather  than 
to  demonstrate  any  inherent  defect  of  the  prevalent  public  school 
system  ?  Has  not  President  HINSDAI.E  mistaken  his  design  ? 
One  would  suppose  it  possible,  from  the  very  singular  misappre- 
hension which  he  exhibits  in  the  very  next  sentence  : 

"A  friend  of  mine"  he  says,  "was  once  looking  through  the  schools  <>l  \\ 
city  very  proud  of  her  schools.  In  pointing  out  .some  notcwoithy  lea; 
one  of  them,  the  supervising  principal  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  it  re- 
quired hut  three  minutes  alter  the  bell  struck  to  empty  the  building  of  its  hun- 
dreds of  occupants.  As  though  the  time  consumed  by  a  child  in  walking  down 
stairs  were  an  important  feature  of  a  school  I"* 

We  should  hardly  know  whether  Mr.  H^NSDALE  is  serious  just 
here,  if  it  were  not  for  the  gravity  of  the  next  sentence,  vi/ : 

"Here  we  are  dealing  with  everyday  criticisms  on  the  common  schools, 
and  it  is  proper  to  inquire  how  far  they  are  just,  and  how  far  the  features  com- 
plained of  can  be  removed." 

Shall  1  be  wanting  in  respect  to  our  very  worthy  and  highly- 
esteemed  associate,  if  1  should  say  that  he  had  written  a  passage 
here  which  eclipses  the  silliness  of  the  exercises  to  which  Dr. 
PEABODY  refers  in  the  paragraph  previously  quoted?  Js  it  neces- 
sary to  explain  that  time  saved  in  the  movement  ol  large  bodies 
of  pupils  is  time  saved  to  each  one  lor  study  and  instruction  ;  that 
the  rapid  and  orderly  assembling  and  dismissing  of  a  thousand  or 
litteen  hundred  pupils  every  day  of  a  school  year,  six  times  per 
day,  without  accident  to  the  feeble  and  the  timid,  is  a  matter  of 
no  little  importance  "if  Finally,  is  it  necessary  that  we  should 
demonstrate  the  necessity  of  such  training  in  case  of  panic  pro 
duced  by  alarm  of  fire, t  etc.?  Were  1  to  attempt  it,  the  intelligent 


*Tht:  iirs. 

t  It  was  only  a  few  days  after  tlie  delivery  of  1'residrnt  HI  :iat  we 

heard  through  the  newspai>ers  «t  an  incMent  whirh  shows  the  \alui-  of  just  sin  l>  disc  ijilim-. 

A   large;  M  In  ...I  house  at    Minneapolis  is  said  to  havt:  i  alight  lire  in  sin.li  .1   uayasali. 

•  ut  •  •  •  of  mind  of  the  teachers  and  the  daily  habit  ol  the  pupils 

all  were  saved  without  injury. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  8 1 

reader  might  look  upon  me  as  trying  to  rival  the  teacher  before 
spoken  of,  who  "  spent  several  minutes  in  demonstrating  *  *  *  to 
children  six  or  seven  years  old,  that  a  horse  had  four  legs  and  a 
child  but  two."  But  seriously,  may  it  not  be  that  this  rigid 
economy  of  time,  now  exercised  in  our  best  public  schools,  en, 
ables  them  to  do  much  more  work  than  was  done  in  the  schools 
of  the  past,  when  teachers,  as  Mr.  HINSDALE  implies,  took  less 
pride  in  saving  the  minutes. 

Again,  on  the  second  page  from  that  on  which  we  find  the 
passages  above  quoted,  Mr.  HINSDALE  returns  to  the  same  sub- 
ject. Here  he  speaks  as  follows:  "Then  there  is  the  teacher's 
tendency  to  formalism  and  routine.  Several  years  ago,  I  discov- 
ered that  an  elaborate  school  ritual  had  been  evolved,  and  I  am 
gratified  that  Dr,  PEABODY  speaks  of  a  school  'ritual  and  rubric.' 
He  says  he  has  seen  a  '  fourth  part  of  the  time  given  to  a  reading 
or  spelling  less'on  occupied  in  meaningless  evolutions  and  gestures 
performed  by  the  scholars  in  the  interval  between  leaving  their 
seats  and  their  resting  in  their  final  positions  in  front  of  the  desk,' 
as  who  has  not?" 

We  suppose  that  Mr.  HINSDALE  will  allow  that  a  somewhat 
specific  course  of  study,  written  or  unwritten,  is  indispensable  if 
we  are  to  have  graded  schools  at  all.  We  believe  he  says  as 
much,  but  he  appears  to  think  it  a  sort  of  necessary  evil.  He 
seems  to  hold  that  the  unclassified  school  of  a  century  or  half 
a  century  ago  had  the  advantage  in  that  its  teachers  were  not 
trammeled  by  any  fixed  course  or  syllabus  of  instruction. 

In  the  consideration  of  this  as  well  as  other  questions,  we  must 
keep  pertinent  facts  clearly  in  mind.  In  the  first  place,  there  is 
not  now,  and  there  never  has  been,  more  than  one  teacher  in  a 
thousand  who  is  qualified  to  plan  and  manage  the  work  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end  of  an  elementary  education.  To  do  this 
well,  one  must  have  reached  the  period  of  maturity;  he  must 
have  been  a  careful  observer  of  the  processes  of  mental  growth ; 
he  must  have  a  keen  insight  into  child  life ;  he  must  be  thoroughly 
conversant  with  the  subjects  of  study.  In  order  that  he  may  go  in 
the  right  direction,  the  planner  should  see  the  end  from  the 
beginning,  and  thereafter  each  step  must  be  taken  with  due  regard 


82  Obi*   o'OMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

to  what  has  gone  before,  and  what  is  to  follow.  There  are  very 
few  teachers  who  can  fulfill  these  conditions ;  but  though  all  were 
competent  there  must  be  unity  of  design  from  first  to  last. 

A  harmonious  development  of  all  the  faculties  of  a  child,  and 
a  right  selection  and  sequence  of  studies  to  be  pursued  from 
infancy  almost  to  manhood,  forbid  that  there  should  be  frequent 
or  radical  changes  in  the  general  plan.  But  with  frequent  changes 
of  teachers  this  is  inevitable,  unless  there  be  a  general  plan  for  all 
to  follow.  The  views  of  different  individuals  conflict  as  to  the 
true  order  of  studies,  and  it  is  even  a  question  among  men  as  to 
what  education  is.  To  illustrate:  one  holds  that  to  teach  reading, 
writing  and  ciphering  is  the  sole  end  for  which  elementary  schools 
were  established ;  another  party  maintains  that  the  three  "  R's,"  as 
indispensable  as  they  may  be,  do  not,  as  generally  taught,  tend  to 
lift  the  mind  or  heart  to  a  higher  plane  of  action.  One  holds  that 
the  chief  purpose  of  studying  grammar  is  to  learn  its  technicalities, 
and  gain  discipline  of  intellect  by  means  df  parsing  and  analysis  ; 
another  holds  all  this  in  light  esteem  compared  with  carefully- 
directed  practice  in  the  use  of  language.  It  is  commonly  thought 
that  arithmetic  should  precede  geometry ;  but  there  are  some 
who  would  reverse  the  process.  Now,  it  won't  do  to  hand  over  a 
child,  much  less  a  whole  school,  at  intervals  of  not  more  than 
three  or  five  years,  to  successive  teachers  holding  such  opposite 
views,  "to  plan  and  manage  their  own  work."  We  find  frequent 
changes  of  teachers  inevitable,  whether  they  be  men  or  women, 
for  in  these  degenerate  days  the  call  of  better  pa>'  is  as  effectual 
as  the  call  of  the  marriage  bell.  How  then  shall  unity  of  design 
in  the  fabric  of  education  be  guaranteed  1  \\  e  reply,  in  only  one 
way,  and  that  is  by  laying  out  our  plans  and  specifications  before 
the  structure  is  commenced.  The  old  analogy  herein  implied  is 
defective  in  many  particulars,  but  it  \\ill  stftice  for  our  punm 
purpose.  A  well-defined  course  of  study,  then,  would  seem  to  be 
a  vital  necessity  to  the  unclassified  as  well  as  the  graded  school. 

P,ut  is  a  school  having  a  course  of  study,  or  a  syllabus  of  in- 
struction, or  a  tirr.e  table  which  indicates  the  relative  impoitarce 
of  the  several  branches  pursued,  more  justly  chargeable  with 
formalism  than  the  old-time  school,  such  as  we  have  had  before  us 


PAST    AND    PRESENT.  83 

in  the  testimony  which  has  been  submitted  ?  The  difference  be- 
tween the  two  may  be  briefly  stated  as  follows  :  The  teacher  who 
is  guided  only  by  a  course,  a  syllabus,  a  time  table,  is  left  to  his 
own  judgment  as  to  how  he  shall  teach  the  successive  topics 
required.  But,  when  the  programme  of  work  is  lacking,  the  book 
regulates  the  course  of  study.  It  prescribes  not  alone  the  order  of 
topics  but  the  exact  form  in  which  definition,  demonstration  and 
rule  are  to  be  learned  ;  and  if  it  be  not  in  the  hands  of  a  true 
master  of  the  art  of  teaching,  he  who  should  be  the  master  be- 
comes the  most  abject  of  slaves.  The  Board  of  Education,  then, 
that  lays  down  a  course  of  study  leaves  its  teachers  pretty  much 
at  liberty  in  their  method  of  teaching.  The  Board  that  simply 
prescribes  a  book,  orders  the  method  by  which  it  shall  be  taught  ; 
that  is,  the  method  of  the  book.  To  which  may  formalism  be 
charged,  with  the  greater  justice? 

We  have  often  heard  teachers,  by  way  of  apology  for  failure, 
say  that  they  could  not  teach  unless  they  were  allowed  to  teach 
in  their  own  way,  but  we  never  heard  such  a  declaration  from  the 
mouth  of  one  who  could  teach  anything  without  the  book  in  hand : 
that  is,  do  anything  more  than  hear  recitations. 

MULTIPLICITY    OF   STUDIES  AND  SUPERFICIALITY. 

There  is  a  very  common  impression  that  more  studies  are  now 
pursued  in  the  public  schools  than  at  any  previous  time,  but  the 
truth  is  that  the  maximum  was  reached  twenty  or  twenty-five 
years  ago.  For  instance :  besides  all  the  branches  now  taught, 
algebra  and  physiology  were  studied  in  the  higher  classes  of  the 
schools  of  Cleveland  and  Cincinnati  from  1850  to  1855,  and  per- 
haps later.  The  tendency  since  that  time  has  been  to  reduce 
rather  than  to  extend  the  course.  Then  there  is  a  very  common 
misapprehension  also  as  to  the  extent  to  which  the  so-called 
higher  branches  are  taught  in  some  of  the  lower  grades.  For 
example  :  when  people  who  are  not  familiar  with  the  schools  come 
to  hear  that  physics  is  taught  to  children  of  twelve  and  thirteen 
years  of  age,  they  picture  to  themselves  these  young  children 
studying  and  making  regular  recitations  on  these  subjects  from 
the  ordinary  treatises,  such  as  were  studied  by  themselves  when 


84  OUR    COMMON    SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

they  were  at  the  academy  or  college.  But  this  is  not  the  true 
picture.  It  should  rather  be,  of  the  teacher  giving  a  half-hour's 
lesson  or  holding  a  familiar  conversation,  once  or  twice  per  week, 
on  a  line  of  subjects  which  properly  fall  under  the  head  of 
physics.  The  instruction  given  is  not  scientific,  it  dwells  only 
upon  those  phenomena  which  may  very  appropriately  engage  the 
attention  of  mere  children.  For  instance  :  by  a  few  simple  experi- 
ments which  require  no  more  apparatus  than  can  be  found  in 
every  school  room,  such  as  the  drinking  cup,  the  water  pail,  etc., 
these  boys  and  girls  can  be  made  to  understand  that  air  occupies 
space,  has  weight,  and  rises,  when  warmed  to  a  temperature  higher 
than  the  surrounding  atmosphere.  The  ventilation  of  a  room 
can  be  explained  and  even  the  cause  of  winds  can  be  made  plain. 
The  reason  why  we  speak  of  higher  and  lower  temperatures 
can  be  shown  by  exposing  the  thermometer  alternately  to  cold 
and  heat.  The  expansion  of  metals  under  high  temperature  can 
be  easily  demonstrated,  and  why  the  thermometer  rises  and  falls 
as  the  temperature  changes. 

So  I  might  go  on  enumerating  phenomena  under  the  head  of 
those  great  names,   mechanics,    hydraulics,   etc.,  etc.,    in    all   of 
which  the  child  may  be  interested,  and  every  one  of  which  will 
stimulate  his  observing  faculties,  excite  thought  and  add  to  his 
intelligence.     No  cramming  of  lessons  to  be  recited  again,  needs 
or  ought  to  be  attempted.     The  only  aim  is  to  make  the  child 
an  intelligent  boy  or  girl.     What  he  learns  will  aid  him  in  all  his 
other  studies,  and  if  he  leave  school  at  an  early  age,  will  be  of 
service  to  him  when  he  goes  into  the  workshop  and  in  his  inter 
course  with  men.     He  may  or  may  not  be  given  to  understand 
that  he  is  learning  "  physics,"  but  he  really  is,  and  that  to  good 
purpose,  if  he  is  rightly  taught. 

In  drawing  this  paper  to  a  close,  I  have  not  the  space  to 
discuss  the  question  whether  this  is  superficial  in  an  obnoxious 
sense.  I  would  here  merely  .raise  the  inquiry  whether  such  teachi- 
ng is  more  superficial  than  learning  that  the  atmosphere  is  very 
cold  about  the  tops  of  high  mountains  ;  that  there  are  trade  winds, 
political  boundary  lines,  tropic  circles,  and  a  thousand  other 
things,  without  learning  their  causes.  The  age  has  come  for 
these  children  to  see  and  know  what  there  is  about  them  affecting 


PAST   AND    PRESENT.  85 

their  daily  life,  though  they  cannot  comprehend  the  philosophy  ot 
things. 

The  age  of  abstract  reason  has  not  come  to  these  children  yet, 
and  any  attempt  to  call  the  faculty  into  any  more  than  feeble 
exercise  must  prove  futile — worse  indeed  than  useless.  It  is 
therefore  amusing  to  hear  Prof.  CHURCH  speak  of  training  "the 
minds  of  beginners  in  the  logical  reasoning  required  in  arithmetic 
and  grammar."  But  though  a  very  superficial  remark,  it  suggests 
that  some  grave  mistakes  are  made  in  our  common  schools. 
They  are  not  however  the  mistakes  which  he  imagines. 

What  some  of  these  mistakes  may  be,  will  appear  as  we  compare 
the  present  course  of  study  with  that  which  prevailed  three- 
quarters  of  a  century  ago.  Spelling,  reading,  writing,  arithmetic, 
and  English  grammar,  including  epistolary  correspondence,  were 
then  required.*  The  same  subjects  are  taught  to-day,  with  the 
addition  of  geography,  music,  drawing,  and,  for  the  higher  classes, 
History  of  the  United  States.  Besides  these,  instruction  in  natural 
science,  such  as  we  have  just  spoken  of,  is  commenced.  That 
these  additions  do  not  preclude  increased  attention  to  the  original 
list,  becomes  apparent  on  taking  note  of  the  amount  of  work  done 
in  the  olden  time  as  compared  with  what  is  now  accomplished  in 
what  are  called  the  common  school  studies.  We  have  already 
seen  that  though  the  object  of  our  present  study  of  spelling  is 
widely  different  from  what  it  used  to  be,  the  time  given  it  by  each 
pupil  is  about  the  same.  Passing  this,  we  next  come  to  reading. 
The  Bible  (mostly  the  Psalms  and  the  New  Testament)  and 
"Webster's  Third  Part"  were  the  books  then  used.  Comparing 
these  with  the  readers  now  in  use,  we  cannot  doubt  that  our 
pupils  are  now  expected  to  read  in  course  twice  or  three  times  as 
much  matter  as  was  then  required,  to  say  nothing  of  the  reading 
which  has  to  be  done  in  the  added  studies,  geography  and  history. 

In  arithmetic,  it  is  quite  certain,  that  more  than  twice  as  many 
rules  and  from  three  to  five  times  more  problems  are  required 
now  than  formerly.  SALEM  TOWN  tells  us  that  fractions  were 
out  of  the  questipn  about  the  beginning  of  the  present  century, 
and  his  testimony  on  this  point  is  confirmed  by  many  other 
witnesses.  In  the  tenth  edition  of  Adams'  arithmetic,  which  was 


ERRATA. 

On  page  64,  second  paragraph, — President  E.  E.  WHITE  m  "  Asbury"  University,  should 
read  President  E.  E.  WHITE  of  "Purdue"  University. 

i  Mi  -ame  page,  in  the  foot-note,  the  name  of  the  Superintendent  of  Instruction,  Columbus, 
Ohio,  should  be  "  R.  W.  STEVENSON,"  not  "  GKO.  W.  STEVENSON,"  and  the  name  of  the 
Superintendent  of  the  Schools  of  Zanesville,  should  be  "A.  T.  WILKS,"  not  "T,  J  .  U 

On  page  79,  fourth  line  from  bottom,  the  proof  reader  has  ''donV'for  "does  not." 


. 


5-5  < 


OKN1A 

LOS  ANGELES 
LIBRARY 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000  955  624     2 


UCLA-ED/PSYCH  Library 

LA  212  R42p 


L  005  630  617  8 


LA 

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